Oil and Gas Rotary Rig Counts: The total number of operating rigs in the U.S. for the week ending October 28th was 610 oil and 156 gas (totaling 766). In percentage terms, on a month on month (m/m) basis, oil rigs were up 1.0% and gas was down 1.9%. On a year on year (y/y) comparison, rigs were up 37.4% for oil and up 56.0% for gas. The combined figure for y/y was +41.2%, or +224 rigs.

Figure 1 shows the Baker Hughes U.S. Rotary Rig Counts for oil and gas equipment in the U.S. from 2012 to present. Oil rigs dropped below 200 in 2020 and landed at 610 this week. Gas rigs bottomed-out at 68 in July 2020 then rose to 156 this week.

For the week ending October 28th, Texas was operating 366 rigs (48.5% of the total), followed by New Mexico with 106 (14.0%), and North Dakota with 36 (4.7%). Louisiana had 49 on-land and 11 off-shore (6.5%). Oklahoma count was 66 (8.7%). These five states together account for 82.6% of the nation’s rig count.

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.