The average number of active drilling units this year now is forecast to be about 22 percent higher than in 1996, said Tony McAloon, Baker Hughes' director of market research. At the end of the first quarter, the firm hiked its projection for 1997 to an average of 859 active rigs. In the latest projection after the second quarter, McAloon said the forecast for the year was lifted to an expected average of 954 active units, well above last year's average of 779. The projection was somewhat lower than the total of 984 rigs in the latest weekly Baker Hughes rig count released Friday. Friday's count was up more than 200 rigs from a total of 774 during the same week a year earlier.
Spending still seems to be pretty firm.
Nobody appears to be changing any plans . . . Oil prices are probably going to trade in a range . . . I don't think that scares anybody in terms of their budgetary plans, which are not based on high oil prices . . . This last week, Texas was down a bit . . . The counts for both states rose Friday, with rigs numbering 365 in Texas, an increase of 13 from the previous week, and 117 in Oklahoma, up 16.