GCA’s U.S. Oil & Gas Monitor, launched on 9 January 2015 to track onshore and Gulf of Mexico (GOM) activity in the light of the oil price crash, showed a sharp decline this week, falling faster at this point than the drop seen 6 years ago in the 2008-2009 oil price crash. The Baker Hughes rig count showed a fall of 88 in the U.S. onshore total, with this now having declined by 470 from a 2014 high of 1,876 in November down to 1,406 on 6 February 2015.

The GCA Indices for rig count and oil price are a comparison of today’s data with the average in the three month period April to June 2014. Changes this week places the GCA Index for U.S. onshore rigs at 78, compared to 83 the previous week. In contrast to the onshore rig count, GCA noted the offshore GOM rig count continues to remaining fairly stable, adding one more oil rig and closing up 2 index points to 88.

The GCA Index for Brent rose a strong 5 points during the week, to close at 53.

Tags: Gaffney Cline & Associates Ltd