Oil and Gas Rotary Rig Counts:  The total number of operating rigs in the U.S. the week as of November 27th was 241 oil and 77 gas (totaling 318). In percentage terms, on a month on month (m/m) basis, oil rigs were up 9.0% and gas down 6.9%. On a year on year (y/y) comparison, rigs were down 63.9% for oil and down 41.2% for gas. The combined figure for y/y was -60.1% or -482 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 1,000 starting in 2015 and landed at 241 this week. Gas rigs bottomed-out at 81 in August 2016 then rose to 77 this week.

For the week ending November 27th, Texas was operating 146 rigs (47.4% of the total), followed by New Mexico with 58 (18.8%), and North Dakota with 11 (3.6%). Louisiana had 28 on-land and 11 off-shore, (9.1%). Oklahoma count was 13, (4.2%). These five states together account for 83.1% 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.