The US oil and gas rig count may have essentially reached its long-awaited bottom after consecutive weeks of single-digit declines. For the week ending July 1, the US oil and gas rig count fell by six to 285, Enverus data shows.
Upstream operators shed four oil rigs week on week, leaving 191, and lost two gas rigs, leaving 94. Five of the eight largest US basins showed no weekly change in rig counts. Four of those basins: the Bakken Shale in North Dakota/Montana, the SCOOP/STACK in Oklahoma, the Utica Shale mostly in Ohio and the DJ Basin in Colorado, now have 10 active rigs or less.
The Permian Basin of West Texas/New Mexico, which boasted a rig count over 400 in January, is down to 140, with one rig shed from the previous week. The rig count averaged 411 in Q2, down 50 percent from 828 during Q1. Platts Analytics' Andre said in the second half of 2020, some "slight" rig recovery may be seen, although this will be "very minor".
