Evening Russ,
we can't end the week on such a mildly positive note.
Now here is a really cheery one.
Baker Hughes weekly U.S. rig count slides to 52-year low
Filed: January 29, 1999
By David Wells
c.1999 Bloomberg News
Houston, Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Baker Hughes Inc., the third-largest U.S. oilfield services company, said the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. fell again this week to its lowest level in the past 52 years.
The rig count slipped 4.4 percent to 562, displacing last week's tally of 588 as the lowest recorded by Baker Hughes since 1947. The count was 987 the same week last year, and peaked at 4,530 on Dec. 28, 1981.
Adjusted for inflation, oil prices are hovering at levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, according to the American Petroleum Institute. The drop has forced companies to cut jobs and spending on exploration to stop a hemorrhaging of earnings, hampering demand for drilling services.
Oil prices began to fall when the Asian financial crisis started crimping demand in October 1997, and were battered further as producing nations failed to curb output enough to stem the glut. Prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange averaged $14.40 a barrel last year, down more than $6 from a year earlier. They rose 30 cents to $12.75 a barrel.
Baker Hughes's weekly report includes a count of inland and offshore rigs actively drilling to find or develop oil and natural gas. The count doesn't include small rigs that are truck-mounted or rigs operating without a permit.
Baker Hughes shares fell 1/16 to 16 3/4 in late trading.
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Who's got the numbers on working Canadian rigs at their finger tips?
Shut in stripper wells? Involuntary production cutbacks?
CIO
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