The number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States increased on Friday by 17, nearly erasing earlier gains to both WTI and Brent crude oil benchmarks. Both benchmarks were trading up early on Friday on the back of geopolitical tensions between Iran and the United States over the threat of fresh sanctions. The total number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States is now 729, according to oilfield services provider Baker Hughes , which is 158 rigs above the rig count a year ago. This week marks the largest four-week gain to the number of oil rigs (+54) since April 2014 (+56). All of this week’s gains were oil rig gains, which were up from 566 last week to 583 this week. The number of active oil rigs in the United States is now the highest since October 2015. Oil rigs have increased […]