By the end of this year, Mitchell will operate ten. There was a time when we could almost pick up the phone and have a rig delivered next week. Those days are gone. We've been looking for these rigs for several months and it will be a couple of more months before they're available. Finding rigs and workers is as tough as the work because low prices flattened the drilling industry.
Former roughnecks are reluctant to return because of the extreme cycles in the business.
The demand for natural gas is up from the booming economy, less gas in storage and more power plants burning gas. And natural gas producers in North Texas say they expect this kind of drilling activity to continue for some time. The federal government forecasts natural gas consumption to grow about two percent a year for the next 20 years. The power plants that are being built in this area all the new ones are gas fired so there's going to be more demand for natural gas. But all these new wells won't help residential customers this winter.