Oil and Gas Rotary Rig Counts: The total number of operating rigs in the U.S. for the week ending December 30th was 621 oil and 156 gas (totaling 777). In percentage terms, on a month on month (m/m) basis, oil rigs were down 1.0% and gas was up 0.6%. On a year on year (y/y) comparison, rigs were up 29.4% for oil and up 47.2% for gas. The combined figure for y/y was +32.9%, or +193 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 621 this week. Gas rigs bottomed-out at 68 in July 2020 then rose to 156 this week.

For the week ending December 30th, Texas was operating 375 rigs (49.08% of the total), followed by New Mexico with 102 (13.35%), and North Dakota with 39 (5.1%). Louisiana had 54 on-land and 14 off-shore (7.07%). Oklahoma count was 69 (9.03%). These five states together account for 83.64% 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.