Bob McCarty Writes

President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress seem intent on passing a pork-laden economic stimulus package despite the fact that oil and natural gas resources that have been kept off-limits by Congress for decades could generate more than $1.7 trillion in government revenue, create thousands of new jobs and enhance the nation’s energy security, according to a recently-released ICF International study.

Meanwhile, perhaps as a signal of oil and gas industry fears about what lies ahead under President Obama, the number of drilling rigs active in the pursuit of oil and natural gas in the United States in January declined 24 percent compared to the same month last year and 13 percent compared to December 2008, according to Baker Hughes, a company that has issued the rotary rig counts as a service to the petroleum industry since 1944.

According to a Baker Hughes news release today, the U.S. rig count for January 2009 was 1,553, down 229 from the 1,782 counted in December 2008 and down 196 from the 1,749 counted in January 2008.

Two points the company opted not to mention in their news release — likely due to the highly-charged political environment in which oil and gas industry officials find themselves — are quite illuminating:

1)  The highest weekly U.S. rig count — 4,530 on Dec. 28, 1981 – occurred during President Ronald Reagan’s first term; and

2) The lowest weekly U.S. rig count — 488 on April 23, 1999 – occurred during President Bill Clinton’s second term.

I hope I’m wrong, but I predict that a new low in drilling activity will be recorded sometime during the next four years.

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See Also:

Chevron Makes ‘Significant’ Deepwater Oil Discovery 190 Miles Southeast of Houston