Active Rig Count - April 8

[dan_s]

The North American Active Rig count continues to fall. The number of rigs drilling for oil & gas is the lowest it has been in over 70 years that Baker Hughes has been tracking it. I expect it to keep falling through the 2nd quarter. In my opinion, it will take oil near $60/bbl before we see an increase in drilling activity. A few companies may begin completing DUC wells when oil reaches $50/bbl, but there will not be a mad rush on completions. The oilfield services sector has been devastated. If oil & gas prices spiked tomorrow, it would take many months to mobilize the people, equipment and supplies necessary to ramp up activity.

The United States active rig count declined by 7 to 443, compared to 988 a year ago.
> Rigs drilling for oil declined by 8 to 354, compared to 760 a year ago and 1,609 at the peak in October, 2014.
> Rigs drilling for gas increased by 1 to 89, compared to 225 a year ago.

Canada has all but shut down.
> Rigs drilling for oil declined by 3 to 8, compared to 20 a year ago.
> Rigs drilling for gas declined by 5 to 33, compared to 79 a year ago.

You can get a nice house in Calgary these days for almost nothing.