Do rig counts still matter?
Monday July 25, 2016
Now the rig count is almost irrelevant to calculating the nation’s future oil production.
After crude prices collapsed, the rig count dropped nearly 80 percent through the oil bust. Â But domestic crude production has fallen by just 8 percent from its peak in April 2015, six months after the rig count began dropping.
When the industry’s drilling activity recovers, more efficient oil companies will need fewer than half the number of rigs used at the height of the oil boom to keep the nation’s fleet of hydraulic fracturing pumps busy, Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar said during a conference call with investors last week.
At HoustonChronicle.com, Collin Eaton, explains why in the next rig cycle, 900 is the new 2,000.”