Since 1944, one of the largest oil field service companies in Texas, Baker Hughes Company, has released data at the end of each week on the state of the oil and gas industry. Last week, Baker Hughes reported an increase in U.S. rig counts which affects demand in a variety of energy sectors such as drilling, completion and production. These rigs are aided in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas domestically.
During the week of February 5th, the rig count rose to 392, giving it a gain of 8 total rigs compared to the prior week. This marks an increase of rig counts for 11 straight weeks which is encouraging for the oil and gas industry. The last time the U.S. had 11 straight weeks of successfully tallying rigs, was back in June of 2017. This is a key indicator that the oil and gas drillers are making their way back domestically because of higher oil prices.
Since this time last year, the U.S. is down roughly half the number of rigs. It goes without saying that the results of COVID-19 have caused a huge drop in demand of domestic oil production. These small victories in restoring our rig count should be encouraging that demand is making a positive come back.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/US-Rig-Count-Jumps-Amid-Rising-Oil-Prices.html
