U.S. shale producers have added extra drilling rigs much more slowly than during the recoveries that followed the last two oil price slumps, limiting output and helping push local prices to their highest level for seven years. But the number of active rigs and total production are likely to climb next year as the recovery matures and producers unwind some of the disinvestment measures they employed to cut costs in 2020/21. The active oil rig count was just 454 last week, according to oilfield services firm Baker Hughes, down from 683 immediately before the arrival of the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020. The rig count is roughly half what it was the last time prices were near the same level in 2018, […]