How much is drilling slowing down across all U.S. shale plays? This little statistic may illustrate it. Patterson-UTI operates (leases out) drilling rigs for shale and conventional drilling. They are one of the biggest rig firms in the Marcellus/Utica. If you were to average the first three months of the year–January through March–Patterson-UTI operated an average of 165 rigs in the U.S. and 8 rigs in Canada. But if you looked at just the month of March, Patterson UTI operated an average of 142 rigs in the U.S. and 4 rigs in Canada. That’s a pretty steep drop in numbers over the course of just a few months–more than 14%…
