Houston Chronicle by Paul Takahashi Aug. 21, 2020
The U.S. rig count rose for the first time since oil markets crashed in March, a sign that the historic oil industry downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic has hit bottom and is slowly recovering.
Energy companies operated 254 oil and gas rigs nationally, up 10 from last week, according to Baker Hughes, a Houston oil-field services company that has been tracking the rig count since the 1940s. There are 183 oil rigs, up 11 from last week, and 69 natural gas rigs, down one from last week, as well as two maintenance rigs in operation nationally.
The rig count, a leading indicator of U.S. oil and gas production, has plunged more than 60 percent since mid-March after the coronavirus pandemic decimated crude demand and forced prices to plummet as drillers paused production. The count, which bottomed out at 244 rigs last week, fell well below the bottom of the last oil bust in May 2016, when there were 404 operating rigs nationally.
Texas saw the biggest gain, adding 8 rigs to bring the state rig count to 108. Texas, home to most of the Permian Basin, hosts about half of the nation’s oil and gas rigs.
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