Oil and Gas Rotary Rig Counts: The total number of operating rigs in the U.S. for the week ending February 25th was 522 oil and 127 gas (totaling 649). In percentage terms, on a month on month (m/m) basis, oil rigs were up 5.5% and gas was up 10.4%. On a year on year (y/y) comparison, rigs were up 68.9% for oil and up 38.0% for gas. The combined figure for y/y was +61.7%, or +248 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 522 this week. Gas rigs bottomed-out at 68 in July 2020 then rose to 127 this week.

For the week ending February 25th, Texas was operating 311 rigs (48.75% of the total), followed by New Mexico with 95 (14.89%), and North Dakota with 33 (5.17%). Louisiana had 43 on-land and 11 off-shore (6.74%). Oklahoma count was 51 (7.99%). These five states together account for 83.54% 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.