Oil and Gas Rotary Rig Counts: The total number of operating rigs in the U.S. for the week ending June 30th was 545 oil and 124 gas (totaling 669). In percentage terms, on a month on month (m/m) basis, oil rigs were down 1.8% and gas was down 9.5%. On a year on year (y/y) comparison, rigs were down 8.4% for oil and down 19.0% for gas. The combined figure for y/y was -10.1%, or -76 rigs.

Figure 1 shows the Baker Hughes U.S. Rotary Rig Counts for oil and gas equipment in the U.S. from 2013 to present. Oil rigs dropped below 200 in 2020 and landed at 545 this week. Gas rigs bottomed-out at 68 in July 2020 then rose to 124 this week.

For the week ending June 30th, Texas was operating 339 rigs (51.7% of the total), followed by New Mexico with 108 (16.5%), and North Dakota with 34 (5.1%). Louisiana had 27 on-land and 16 off-shore (4.1%). Oklahoma count was 40 (6.1%). These five states together account for 83.6% 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.