London — Oil prices steadied on Monday as an increase in US drilling, likely to lead to higher shale production, balanced evidence of tightening supply. Benchmark Brent was up 40 US cents at $77.51 a barrel by 7.50am GMT. US crude was down 10c at $73.70. US energy companies last week increased the number of rigs drilling for oil by five to 863, up 100 year-on-year, General Electric’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report late on Friday. The US rig count, an early indicator of future output, is much higher than a year ago as energy companies have ramped up production in response to higher prices. Extra output is needed because oil demand has been rising fast in 2018 and supply from several parts of the world, including Venezuela and Libya, has been falling. This has tightened the market, especially in the US. Crude oil inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for US crude futures, have fallen to their lowest in three-and-a-half years, data ...
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