Oil and Gas Rotary Rig Counts: The total number of operating rigs in the U.S. for the week ending January 29th was 495 oil and 115 gas (totaling 610). In percentage terms, on a month on month (m/m) basis, oil rigs were up 3.1% and gas was up 8.5%. On a year on year (y/y) comparison, rigs were up 67.8% for oil and up 30.7% for gas. The combined figure for y/y was +58.9%, or +226 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 495 this week. Gas rigs bottomed-out at 68 in July 2020 then rose to 115 this week.

For the week ending January 28th, Texas was operating 283 rigs (47.8% of the total), followed by New Mexico with 94 (15.8%), and North Dakota with 27 (4.6%). Louisiana had 40 on-land and 17 off-shore (6.8%). Oklahoma count was 51 (8.6%). These five states together account for 83.6% 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.