Oil and Gas Rotary Rig Counts: The total number of operating rigs in the U.S. for the week ending December 25th was 480 oil and 106 gas (totaling 586). In percentage terms, on a month on month (m/m) basis, oil rigs were up 2.8% and gas was up 3.9%. On a year on year (y/y) comparison, rigs were up 79.8% for oil and up 27.7% for gas. The combined figure for y/y was +67.0%, or +235 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 480 this week. Gas rigs bottomed-out at 68 in July 2020 then rose to 106 this week.

For the week ending December 25th, Texas was operating 275 rigs (48.2% of the total), followed by New Mexico with 94 (16.5%), and North Dakota with 27 (4.7%). Louisiana had 36 on-land and 13 off-shore (6.3%). Oklahoma count was 49 (8.6%). These five states together account for 84.2% of the nation’s rig count.

The energy agency says, “While a successful vaccine rollout should break the link between infection and mobility, even then global oil demand will likely only reach its pre-pandemic run rate by mid-2022.”

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.