Friday, July 20, 2012

Natural Gas: Baker Hughes Forecasts Year-end Rig Count of 488

 Front futures up 3 1/2 cents at $3.034.
Last week's rig count will come out later today.
A quick hit from Reuters:

Baker Hughes sees fall in gas rigs, rise in oil rigs
Oil-services firm Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday it expects the U.S. natural gas rig count to fall to 488 at the end of this year, down 321 from 2011 levels.

The company also expects the oil rig count to rise to 1,430 at year-end 2012, up by 300 from a year earlier.

This fits with our thinking:

June 1, 2012 
Natural Gas Rig Count Down 6 (Yawn)
We've been saying the count has to fall into the high 400's for the E&P's announced cutbacks to be taken seriously.
Platt's has 540 as a target but the number is a couple weeks old and may not take into account the gas being produced as a "byproduct" of the hunt for liquids. ...