Tom et al,

Baker Hughes says that the US rig count is now 1078 up 9 for the week. Natural gas directed rigs are up 6 to 734 while directional and horizontal rigs are up 16 to 693. At the pace of the last two weeks, the directional and horizontal rig count will PASS the natural gas directed rig count well prior to year end.

That latter idea is significant not just because it is revealing of the use of more complicated drilling for oil as well as natural gas but it is also probably a measure of how biased natural gas drilling has become towards tight gas plays (read shales) as I noted in my post on Shale Gas.

Regards,

Peter