03:12 PM EDT, 10/24/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The number of oil rigs in the US increased by two in the week through Friday, while crude prices were headed for their biggest weekly gains since mid-June following Washington's move to impose new sanctions on two Russian oil companies.

The count for oil rose to 420 rigs from the previous week's 418, according to data from energy services company Baker Hughes ( BKR ) . The tallies for gas and miscellaneous rigs were unchanged at 121 and nine, respectively.

The US had 480 oil, 101 gas and four miscellaneous rigs in operation a year earlier. Among US states, Louisiana added three rigs, while Wyoming added two. Top producer Texas and Colorado lost one rig each.

Across North America, the oil and gas rig count rose by three to 749, with Canada adding one rig to bring its tally to 199, the data showed.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 0.4% at $61.56 a barrel in Friday late-afternoon trade, while Brent was little changed at $66. However, both benchmarks were on track for gains of more than 7.5% for the week -- the biggest weekly advance since mid-June -- following a jump in the previous session.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on two of Russia's largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, citing the country's "lack of serious commitment to a peace process" to end the war in Ukraine.

The development has "injected a fresh geopolitical risk premium into the energy complex," Saxo Bank Head of Commodity Strategy Ole Hansen said in a report Friday. The two companies account for about 3 million barrels a day of exports, according to the note.

"Early reports suggest Indian refiners have sharply reduced purchases, while Chinese independent refiners have paused buying to assess compliance exposure," Hansen said. "The sanctions effectively shifted the market narrative from oversupply concerns and the risk of further price weakness to disruption risk."

Separately, ING Bank said there's still a lot of uncertainty over how much Russian oil supply will be disrupted by the latest US sanctions. "As a result, there is significant uncertainty about what this means for the oil balance and prices," the firm wrote in a Friday note.

Price: 47.26, Change: -1.63, Percent Change: -3.33