As oil prices soar, Nigeria’s rig count for the month of July hit a slight decline to 32 as against 33 rig count recorded in May, at a time the 14-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) also recorded a decline of minus 13 rig counts while the total world rig count increased by 55.
BusinessDay analysis of the report of OPEC showed that since the beginning of 2018 Nigeria’s oil rig count has been hovering around 32 to 33.
According to online sources Petropedia.com, Rig count is an official listing of all the oil and gas rigs that are operational at a certain location. It also demonstrates the necessary details such as the location of each rig and its functional status.
Data obtained from OPEC for the month of July showed OPEC highest oil producer Saudi Arabia’s rig count fell by 8, having had a rig count of 139 in June, as against 147 recorded in May. Venezuela’s rig count fell by 2 as it recorded 68 as against 70, within the period under review.
Abayomi Fawehinmi, an energy analyst in a Lagos based oil firm said oil rigs are indications of drilling activities going on in a country’s oil sector however it can be very dodgy at times.
“Some rigs are like beasts and drill faster, cheaper and better than the others while some other rigs can also be docile,” Fawehinmi told BusinessDay.
Gabon and Qatar rig count fell by one each to 3 and 10 respectively in July 2018 as against 4 and 11 respectively in the month of June 2018.
Eight countries, Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had zero change in their rig count, with 50, 4, 1, 61, 60, 54, 1 and 54, respectively.
“So a country can let go of 3 old rigs and get a new one that is better than all the 3 old rigs combined,” Fawehinmi told BusinessDay by email.
World rig count showed an upward move of plus 55, as it recorded 2, 232 in June, as against 2,177 recorded the previous month. There was also an upward move of plus 67 for non-OPEC rig count, which jumped to 1,688 in June, compared to the 1, 621 it recorded in May.
Leading the OPEC loss pack was Algeria, which had minus five, having recorded 50 as against 55 during the period under review.
It was followed by Saudi Arabia, which had a loss of four, following its record of 142 rig count in December, as against 146 rig count recorded the previous month.
The United States showed an increase of 11, having deployed 1, 056 rigs in June, as against 1, 045 deployed the previous month, while Canada had plus 53, as it deployed 136 rigs in June as against 83 rigs deployed the month before. The OECD members witnessed a rig count of plus 65, having recorded 1, 319 as against 1, 254 recorded within the period under review.
The Baker Hughes rig counts are counts of the number of drilling rigs actively exploring for or developing oil or natural gas in the U.S., Canada and international markets.
The company has issued the rig counts as a service to the petroleum industry since 1944, when Hughes Tool Company began weekly counts of the U.S. and Canadian drilling activity. The monthly international rig count was initiated in 1975.
According to data obtained from the Bloomberg terminal, Brent crude, the international benchmark was trading around 0.95 percent higher at $74.45 on Monday, while West Texas Intermediate futures rose 0.33 percent to trade at $69.24.
DIPO OLADEHINDE
