January 2009 Rig Counts
The recovery in Rig numbers continues.
Baker Hughes Incorporated announced today that the international rig count for January 2010 was 1,047, up 23 from the 1,024 counted in December 2009, and up 3 from the 1,044 counted in January 2009.
So despite the rash of announcement last year concerning budget cuts, we are back to where we were in January 2009. This shows that the impact of falling oil prices on upstream activity was only a temporary blip.
Interestingly however, the situation in the USA is not the same.
The US rig count for January 2010 was 1,267, up 95 from the 1,172 counted in December 2009 and down 286 from the 1,553 counted in January 2009.
This probably reflects the growing importance of natural gas in the US. With prices of that commodity still at very low levels, it may take a lot longer for drilling activity to recover.
