“Davidson” submits:
Several months ago I said we could see the BH Rig Count peak near 1,000.
It is hard to predict this, but near term it looks like a definite flattening is occurring. Relating this to past rig count levels is hard to do with the shift in horizontal drilling and then add the efficiency gains of ~70% range making comparables impossible. But, seeing a roll over at far lower levels than in the past should not be a surprise. The US oil production is not yet back to the July 2015 peak but we are quite close and likely to hit new production records in the next few weeks.
Net/net efficiencies give us record US Production with well under half the previous peak rig count. Shows what technological advance can do. Faster, Better, Cheaper!
