Oil rally yet to spark U.S. shale industry with rig count nearly half year ago figure

The rally in oil futures, which peaked this week with crude topping $70/bbl, has yet to feed through to the U.S. drilling industry with Baker Hughes reporting just one extra rig added last week. 

The total number of U.S. rigs was 403 for the week ending 5 March, leaving the number nearly halved from 793 rigs a year earlier. 

Four more oil rigs started drilling, nudging the total up to 310, although this was down from 682 rigs a year earlier.

Just 211 rigs were drilling in the Perminas basin, almost half the number operating a year ago.

The number of gas rigs in the U.S. was steady at 92, and down only 17 from a year earlier.

"The correlation between WTI and horizontal rig count suggests a significant upside potential for the number of horizontal rigs at current prices, but shale companies' presentations still indicate strong focus on free cash flow in 2021," said Helge Andre Martinsen, an analyst at DNB Markets. 

Meanwhile, Canada's overall rig count dropped by 22, with a loss of 12 oil rigs to bring the total down to 80, and a drop of 10 gas rigs to bring the total down to 61. 

Canada has 54 fewer oil rigs and 8 fewer gas rigs operating than a year earlier.