Oil and Gas Rotary Rig Counts: The total number of operating rigs in the U.S. for the week ending August 27th was 410 oil and 97 gas (totaling 507). In percentage terms, on a month on month (m/m) basis, oil rigs were up 6.5% and gas was down 5.8%. On a year on year (y/y) comparison, rigs were up 127.8% for oil and up 34.7% for gas. The combined figure for y/y was +100.0%, or +254 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 410 this week. Gas rigs bottomed-out at 68 in July 2020 then rose to 97 this week.

For the week ending August 27th, Texas was operating 232 rigs (47.1% of the total), followed by New Mexico with 81 (16.4%), and North Dakota with 22 (4.5%). Louisiana had 35 on-land and 14 off-shore (7.1%). Oklahoma count was 31 (6.3%). These five states together account for 81.3% 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.