Mixed Data on Oil Rig Counts (BHI)

Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) has released its June data for rig counts.  The bad news is that there are still some drops being recorded in rig counts from May, and these counts still look atrocious if you take a year over year comparison from when oil prices were through the roof.  We would note, however, that this is slightly misleading if you just look at the raw data.  We have seen a firming of these rig counts over the last two weeks, even if this firming is still very far from robust growth.

Baker Hughes said that the international rig count for June 2009 was 967, down 26 from the 993 counted in May 2009, and down 135 from the 1,102 counted in June 2008.

The international offshore rig count for June 2009 was 269, down 3 from the 272 counted in May 2009 and down 52 from the 321 counted in June 2008.

The US rig count for June 2009 was 895, down 23 from the 918 counted in May 2009 and down 1,006 from the 1,901 counted in June 2008.

As you will see, there is a total gain on some of the data on a monthly basis.  On an annual basis it is way down, but prices are also less than half year-ago levels for oil.

The Canadian rig count for June 2009 was 125, up 53 from the 72 counted in May 2009 and down 141 from the 266 counted in June 2008.

The worldwide rig count for June 2009 was 1,987, up 4 from the 1,983 counted in May 2009 and down 1,282 from the 3,269 counted in June 2008.

We’ll be watching this Friday’s weekly count to see if the firming and gaining trend can continue now that oil has pulled back into the low $60’s per barrel from $70+ just in the last two weeks.

JON C. OGG
JULY 8, 2009