Canadian Drilling – Rig Counts Hold at the Holiday Lows

For the week ending January 3, Baker Hughes reported that the Western Canadian gas-directed rig count fell one to 50 (blue circle in left hand chart below), 17 less than one year ago and its lowest level since early June 2023. The oil-directed rig count was unchanged at 42 (red circle in right hand chart), 15 less than a year ago and its lowest point since the final week of December 2023 when it bottomed out at 26. The impact of drilling crews stepping away for year-end holidays has reduced natural gas and crude oil drilling activity to what will likely be their lowest point in 2025 and before staging what is expected to be a very large recovery in next week’s release, especially for crude directed rigs.