The Baker Hughes North American rig count is up 12 at 749 in the Nov. 21 week from 737 in the prior week. The count is down 35 from 784 a year ago.

The U.S. rig count is up 5 from last week at 554 and down 29 rigs from 583 last year at this time. The Canadian count is up 7 from last week at 195 and compared to last year is down 6 from 201. The Gulf of Mexico rig count is flat at 12 in the latest week from last week and flat from 12 a year ago.

For the U.S. count, rigs classified as drilling for oil is up 2 at 419, gas rigs are up 2 at 127 and miscellaneous rigs are up 1 at 8. For the Canadian count, oil rigs are up 4 at 128, gas rigs are up 3 at 67, and miscellaneous is flat at 0.

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).