The Baker Hughes North American rig count rose by 41 rigs to 1,002 in the Jan. 13 week from a week ago and rose 210 from 792 a year ago. Rigs have generally been trending higher from a low of 278 in late June 2020.

The U.S. rig count is up 3 from last week at 775 and up 174 rigs from last year at this time. The Canadian count rose by 38 rigs from last week to 227 and compared to last year is up 36 rigs. The Gulf of Mexico rig count is up 3 at 19 in the latest week from last week, and up 1 from a year ago.

For the U.S. count, rigs classified as drilling for oil are up 5 at 623, gas rigs are down 2 at 150, and miscellaneous rigs are flat at 2. For the Canadian count, oil rigs are up 28 at 141 and gas rigs are up 10 at 86.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count tracks weekly changes in the number of active operating oil & gas rigs. Used for drilling wellbores for wells that may eventually produce oil or gas, active rigs are essential for the exploration and development of oil and gas fields. Rigs that are not active are not counted. Components in the data are the United States and Canada with a separate count for the Gulf of Mexico (which is a subset of the U.S. total). The count includes only rigs that are significant users of oilfield services and supplies.

Changes in rig counts point to changes in the supply of oil & gas. The higher the rig count, the greater the upward pressure is on oil & gas supply and in turn the greater the downward pressure is on oil & gas prices. The reverse applies when rig counts turn lower, as they did during the oil price collapse of 2014-15 when lower counts contributed to a subsequent decline in domestic oil inventories. Data on the Gulf of Mexico offer indications on production disruptions during the hurricane season (June 1st to November 30th).