Active Rig Count - May 22

[dan_s]

Baker Hughes weekly report shows the number of active rigs in U.S. & Canada dropped another 8 rigs last week to 957 (from 2,011 a year ago).

The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. dropped by just one rig to 659, from a peak of 1,609 in early October. I thought the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. would drop below 600 and it may still happen. Regardless, this is not even close to the number of rigs we need drilling for oil to keep our production flat, just to many wells on steep decline today.

The number of rigs drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is down to 28, from 58 a year ago. The offshore driller do not look good to me.

When the rig count starts going up again (and it will eventually) the high quality drilling companies like HP, PTEN and PDS and make some nice runs. All they do is gain market share each time these dips occur.

For details see: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zht ... portsother