Canada’s drilling rig count fell by 61 rigs in the last week of December from a week earlier, with the annual decline at 66 rigs, per the latest weekly rig count report by Baker Hughes. As Canadian drillers gear up for winter season, the rig count usually drops before the end of the year, this year, the figures add a more grim shade to the landscape of the Canadian oil industry, which this year suffered a major slump of the local benchmark, Western Canadian Select, to West Texas Intermediate, at one time dipping to a discount of over US$50 to WTI. Over the last two weeks of the month and the year, according to the data, the number of active drilling rigs deployed in Canada fell by a combined 104 to just 70, highlighting the effect of low local oil prices but also the obligatory production cuts enforced by […]