Oil and Gas Rotary Rig Counts: The total number of operating rigs in the U.S. for the week ending August 15th was 412 oil and 122 gas (totaling 539). In percentage terms, on a month on month (m/m) basis, oil rigs were down 2.4% and gas was up 4.3%. On a year on year (y/y) comparison, rigs were down 14.7% for oil and up 24.5% for gas. The combined figure for y/y was -8%, or -47 rigs.

Figure 1 shows the Baker Hughes U.S. Rotary Rig Counts for oil and gas equipment in the U.S. from 2015 to present. Oil rigs dropped below 200 in 2020 and landed at 412 this week. Gas rigs bottomed-out at 68 in July 2020 then rose to 183 this week.

The energy agency says, “At the time, OPEC was not in a position to restore stability to the market, so it reached out to producers outside the group, including Russia and nine other countries. When Covid-19 and more unprecedented events struck, it affirmed how important the established framework was.”

At Gerdau, we monitor rig counts along with the price of oil and natural gas since it has a major impact on long product sales – including special bar quality sucker rods for downhole pumping strings, to merchant and structural products for rigs and oilfield equipment.