RE:Rig Count down -56There’s always optimism when the current price of WTI moves off its lows. But realistically, if you consider that $80.00 would be a viable price for the North American oil industry, WTI at $45.00 would almost have to do a double to get there. So it would not be much of a stretch to predict that the culling of the rig count will continue. One thing does seem certain, (at least temporarily), that current prices represent reality, -and the industry has no choice but to cut rigs. Given the tendency of markets to overshoot (American dollar, Swiss France to mention a few) you can expect a similar scenario to play out with the rig count. In fact it might be safe to assume, that in aggregate, we will see the “mother of rig count culls” as this process plays out. It’s the logical place for the industry to start, even though many well completions are also being deferred as a further supportive action to put on the brakes. We are witnessing history in the making. I’ve never seen such a massive drop squeezed into such a short time frame. From its high of 1930 on Sept 30th 2014 we have plummeted to1067 for a drop of 863 rigs or 44.7%. After all, with no pipelines, no exports allowed and storage practically full what else can you do?