Weekly Active Rigs Count: Trends Reverting This Week

For over 70 years now, Baker Hughes Incorporated BHI has been issuing rotary rig counts for the United States and Canada every week. On top of this the company has also published a monthly international rig count for the last 40 years.

The oilfield services supplier assures the rig counts are “an important business barometer for the drilling industry and its suppliers. When drilling rigs are active they consume products and services produced by the oil service industry. The active rig count acts as a leading indicator of demand for products used in drilling, completing, producing and processing hydrocarbons.”

North America & The World

On Friday, the company released its latest rig count. As of August 7, the United States had 884 active rigs, up from 874 last Friday. This figure reverts the downtrend seen last week. However, it still implies a considerable decline from the 1908 rigs registered a year ago

Canada also saw last week’s trend reverted. After seeing a 7.5 percent increase in active rigs last week, the Northern country saw the active rigs count fall 3.25 percent this week to 208. A year ago, the count ascended to 387.

Finally, on a global scale (excluding North America), the rig count continued to fall. After tumbling roughly 1 percent, month-over-month, July saw a 2.44 percent decline in the count, which now stands at 1118 rigs. This compares to 1382 active rigs counted in July 2014.

Oil And Gas

A more detailed look at Baker Hughes’ report shows that the surge in U.S. active rigs was driven by an increase in active oil rigs, from 664 last week to 670 this week, and by a proliferation of gas rigs, which now stand at 213, up from 209 last Friday.

It should be noted that last week the active oil rigs count for the U.S. also rose, while gas rigs fell substantially.

The picture in Canada was pretty different from last week’s. Last week, active oil rigs increased by 14 to 112, while active gas rigs only rose by 1 to 103. This week, gas rigs saw another increase, to 108, while oil rigs fell by 12, to only 100.

The Stock Market

The United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) USO is down more than 1.4 percent on Friday trading.

Baker Hughes is down, too, by 1.25 percent and trading at $55.89

Other industry peers like Halliburton Company HAL,Schlumberger Limited. SLB andNational-Oilwell Varco, Inc. NOV are also down, more than 1.5 percent, on Friday trading.

Other energy companies with market caps close to Baker Hughes are also tumbling. Among Friday’s losers investors can count Williams Partners LP WPZ, Marathon Petroleum Corp MPC, Ecopetrol S.A. (ADR) EC andDevon Energy Corp DVN.