Nigeria oil rigs slides OPEC records minus 13

As oil price soars high, 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 into the report of OPEC showed since the beginning of 2018 Nigeria’s oil rig has been hovering round 32 to 33 rig counts as Africa’s largest oil producing country witnesses a slight fall to 32 oil rigs for the month of June 2018  as against 33 recorded in the previous month. 

Sources: OPEC

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 as 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 also showed OPEC highest oil producer Saudi Arabia had minus eight, having had a rig count of 139 in June, as against 147 recorded in May. Venezuela had a minus two rig count 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.

Just as Nigeria recorded a minus of one in its rig count; Gabon and Qatar also recorded a minus one in its rig count to have 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 Emirate (UAE), had zero change in their rig count. They had 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.

Only one of the OPEC members, Ecuador recorded plus one, as its rig count for the month of June stood at seven as against six recorded in May. 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 witnessed 1, 688 in June, while it recorded 1, 621 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 world’s first and only full stream provider of integrated oilfield products, services and digital solutions company Baker Hughes announced on August 7 that the Baker Hughes international rig count for July 2018 was 997, up 38 from the 959 counted in June 2018, and up 38 from the 959 counted in July 2017. The international offshore rig count for July 2018 increased by 22 to 217 from 195 counted in June 2018, and up 13 from the 204 counted in July 2017.

According to the New York Listed Baker Hughes, the average U.S. rig count for July 2018 was 1,050, decreased by 6 rig count from the 1,056 counted in June 2018, and up 97 from the 953 counted in July 2017. The average Canadian rig count for July 2018 increased by 67 rig count to 204, from 137 counted in June 2018, and up 6 from the 198 counted in July 2017.

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 worldwide rig counts for July 2018 increased by 99 rig count to 2,251, from the 2,152 counted in June 2018, and up 141 from the 2,110 counted in July 2017.

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