Rigs

U.S. operators dumped 75 land rigs for the week ending March 6 (Friday), including 64 drilling for oil and 12 for natural gas, bringing total losses year/year to 600, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

Seventy Seven Energy Inc. (SSE), which spun off from Chesapeake Energy Corp. last year, has shifted some planned 2015 capital expenses to 2016, reduced product and material costs and cut jobs to deal with challenges ahead.

The United States lost 48 more land drilling rigs as of Friday, down 37 for oil and 11 for natural gas, which cut the domestic count to 1,250, versus 1,696 a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. Twenty-two rigs also were lost in Canada.

The U.S. rig count may level off by August to about 1,000 following the rapid decline this year, which included 200 that were dropped in the first two weeks of February, Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said Thursday.

The U.S. oil rig count continued to drop sharply as Baker Hughes Inc. reported that 1,056 were running across the country for the week ending Feb. 13, down 84 from the previous week and 367 from the same time one year ago.

The day Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (PTEN) delivered its third quarter results last October, crude oil was trading at $82/bbl, and there was “concern about a little bit of oil price softness,” said Chairman Mark Siegel. It’s since become a “full-fledged downturn, of a magnitude and duration, we do not yet know…”

Matador Resources Co. said it plans to scale back its drilling program over the next few months, dropping two rigs deployed in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas but keeping three rigs in the Permian Basin in southeast New Mexico and West Texas, a familiar refrain as exploration and production (E&P) companies of all stripes continue to grapple with the collapse in world crude oil prices.

Permian pure-play operator Laredo Petroleum Inc. indicated Tuesday that it was acting quickly to defend its balance sheet against sliding oil prices, announcing that it had already begun to reduce its rig count and slashing next year’s capital budget by nearly 50%.

Continental Resources Inc. is betting that the sell-off in crude oil has hit bottom and has monetized nearly all of its hedge positions through 2016, while keeping about one-third of its natural gas hedged in 2015 at an average price of $4.34/Mcf.