Oil Drilling in U.S. Ends Fraught 2020 at Pre-Shale Levels
- Permian exploration activity down 58% from pre-pandemic mark
- Bankruptcies, supply glut, pandemic battered crude industry
Pumpjacks operate on oil wells in the Permian Basin in Texas.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The crisis that enveloped the oil industry in 2020 can be measured in various ways, but in the U.S. there may be no better single gauge than the tally of drilling rigs operating across the world’s largest producer.
The weekly data shows at a glance the level of confidence from hundreds of companies that sink shale wells from Texas to North Dakota. As the price of crude plunged amid the pandemic, those operators slashed spending and cut drilling crews.