Baker Hughes Rig Count Favors Oil Over Gas

Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) has just released its key weekly rig count data.  The report shows that the United States is -30 from last week down to 1864 rigs, while Canada’s rig count gre by 29 rigs to 345.  On a net basis it sounds like a wash, but the devil is in the details.

On the U.S. front, oil rigs were down 10 to 1409, and gas rigs were down 21 to 452 rigs.  More importantly, the U.S. Rig Count is down 94 rigs from last year at 1958 rigs: oil rigs are up 352 and gas rigs are down 440. The U.S. Offshore rig count is 51 and that is unchanged from last week but up 19 year over year.

Its Canadian rig count is up 29 rigs at 345 from last week, with oil rigs up 19 at 256 and gas rigs up 10 at 89.  The same Canadian rig count is down 170 rigs from last year at 515, with oil rigs down 100 and gas rigs down 70.

In short, you can see that the trend is still more favorable to oil than it is to gas.  This should not be a surprise on most fronts. Baker Hughes shares are up 3.4% today at $46.86 but this remains a move with the sector rather than due to any key rig count changes. The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) is up 2.4% at $41.42.

JON C. OGG