Baker Hughes Feb Rig Counts Rockets Skyward, Recovery Continues
The Baker Hughes rig count in the U.S. continued to be on fire in February. Whoops! Poor choice of words. The rig count continued its rocket ride. In January the average number of U.S. rigs was 683. In February, the count zoomed to 744, up 61 rigs in just a month. Each active rig translates into hundreds of jobs, both directly working at the rig and indirectly in services delivered to the rig and its workers. It also means more landowners will soon have royalty payments heading in their direction. When rigs are active, life is good. What about rig counts in the Marcellus/Utica? Total rig count went up another 3 rigs. Two of the rigs were added in WV (now 10), and one in PA (now 34). OH’s rig count remained the same (20 rigs) in February as January. Just 3 added rigs out of 61 means other shale plays (primarily the Permian and other oil plays) are where most of the rig action is happening. Here’s the full set of numbers, along with a pretty MDN chart showing the last 12 months of rig counts in the Marcellus/Utica…
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Oilfield services company Baker Hughes, with major operations in the Marcellus/Utica, posted its fourth quarter and annual 2016 results last week. Financially speaking the numbers were a river of red. BH lost $2.7 billion in 2016 vs. losing $1.9 billion in 2015. However, when you look at the later half of the year, and the fourth quarter in particular, the numbers started to improve. BH lost $417 million in 4Q16 vs. losing $1 billion in 4Q15. The bleeding slowed. BH CEO Martin Craighead, in responding to a question about the company’s North American shale business, said, “So equipment goes where it’s loved the most, and not every basin in North America is created equal right now in terms of pricing.” Hmmm. We wonder if the Marcellus/Utica is loved? Below is the update…
The world’s third largest oilfield services company, Baker Hughes, has struggled to stay afloat given the radical reduction in revenue they get for the services they offer. BH’s recent third quarter update showed the company lost $430 million, which is down from losing $912 million in 3Q15, a positive sign we suppose (see 
As this post is being written and published, the world’s third largest oilfield services company, Baker Hughes, is holding an investor webcast to announce it has struck a deal to combine/merge with/sell itself to GE’s oil and gas business. The deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, will result in a new company that will be 65.5% owned by GE and 37.5% owned by Baker Hughes shareholders. The deal, IF it gets approved by the Dept. of Justice, will create a company with $32 billion in revenues. Make no mistake, aside from all of the “partnership” talk, this is GE buying out Baker Hughes. The CEO of the new company will be Lorenzo Simonelli, chief executive of GE Oil & Gas. The board of directors for the new company will have 5 members appointed by GE and 4 members appointed by Baker Hughes. The deal, if it happens, would catapult the new Baker Hughes (or whatever it will be called) past Halliburton to become the world’s second largest oilfield services company. Get this: The deal may even catapult the new company to become the world’s number one oilfield services company–eclipsing Schlumberger! The question now is, will the Dept. of Justice approve the deal? Earlier this year the Obama DOJ killed the proposed Baker Hughes merger with Halliburton (see 
The Baker Hughes rig count, watched closely by those in the industry (the benchmark used across the world) has been trending up in the U.S. since July. BH released their venerable count for September on Friday and once again the counts have gone up–very good news indeed. BH is reporting an average of 509 active rigs in the U.S., up 28 from August. MDN performs its own rig count for the Marcellus/Utica, using BH’s numbers for Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The Marcellus/Utica rig count was up for the second month running. In September the M/U rig count jumped up by 7. The biggest gainer was Pennsylvania, up by 5. West Virginia was up by 2, and Ohio stayed even…
Two months ago when Baker Hughes released their venerable rig count numbers, we cracked a smile that things are beginning to turn around with an increase in U.S. rig counts (see 
We’ve long bemoaned the fact that the first tactic used by oil and gas companies to stay in business during this severe downturn has been to layoff large numbers of employees. We understand all the arguments: better to cut some rather than go bankrupt and out of business, putting everyone at the company in the unemployment line. We also understand many of these same companies added large numbers of people over the past half decade in the rapid scale-up to handle all of the new shale drilling–so this is simply a “correction” or rebalancing. But tell that to someone who has lost his or her job and the families affected by it. “Hey, you’ve been made redundant” (as our British friends call it). Or, “You’re just a correction.” No, our sympathies are with the men and women who have been laid off and suffer. Some of the biggest layoffs have come from oilfield services companies, like Halliburton and Baker Hughes–both with major operations in the Marcellus/Utica. Tens of thousands have been laid off at each company over the past two years or so. In July Baker Hughes laid off another 3,000 in fell swoop (see 
Last month when Baker Hughes released their venerable rig count numbers, we cracked a smile that things are beginning to turn around with an increase in U.S. rig counts (see US Rig Count Up by 9 in June, Marcellus/Utica Holds Even at 36). This month we have a full-on smile. Baker Hughes released their July rig count numbers on Friday and the average number of rigs working in the U.S. was 449, up 32 from the 417 counted in June 2016. Cool! Was there also good cheer for the Marcellus/Utica? Er, well, maybe “no cheer” is the best way to put it. PA’s rig count went up by one in July, Ohio stayed the same, and West Virginia’s count went down by one. Once again in July we had a Marcellus/Utica rig count of 36, same as June and the same as May. Hey, at least it didn’t slide backward! That’s progress of a sort…