Active Rig Count drifting higher - March 29

[dan_s]

From TPH Morning notes 3-29-2021

Weekly Rig Count
Private E&Ps continue driving horizontal activity higher
Sector: Energy Services & Equipment | Ticker: OSX
Big uptick in U.S. land activity last week as the Enverus count finished +18 rigs w/w (to 506 rigs; 4-wk +49) vs. BKR +7 (to 398 rigs; 4-wk +20). Per Enverus, horizontal activity leapt notably higher last week (+14 w/w, 4-wk +33) with private operators continuing to account for the vast majority of the incremental gains (+11 w/w, 4-wk +30). For context, over the past five weeks, public horizontal rig count is unchanged while private E&Ps have added more than 25 horizontal rigs. As such, private E&Ps now collectively account for a record ~46% of total U.S. land horizontal rig count (vs. 2019 avg. of ~36%). While we continue to believe the public universe of E&P operators will likely only add modestly to their current activity levels in the coming months, it’s becoming clear based on recent weeks that there is some upside potential to private activity levels with WTI at/above ~$60/bbl. With the last full week of Q1’21 now in the books, it’s also worth pointing that avg. Q1’21 horizontal activity improved by a healthy ~30% q/q. From a regional perspective, last week’s uptick was driven primarily by private E&Ps adding horizontal rigs in the Permian (+7 w/w). Elsewhere, GOM drilling activity finished +1 floater w/w (to 15 floaters / 2 jackup working), while Canadian activity continued its seasonal descent although is still tracking well above 2020 levels (-18 w/w to 83 rigs; vs. 49 a year ago).