The latest US rig count is in (pdf) from Baker Hughes, and two whole explorations units came back to life last week.
The steep fall in oil prices last year wiped out a lot of oil rigs as producers focused on sites with more potential, but this is the fourth consecutive week—and the sixth week in seven—that the count has risen. West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude oil futures prices didn’t do much after the release, each up and down less than 1%, respectively.
Maybe the folks behind these two new rigs (which Baker Hughes doesn’t name or offer locations for) are bad at reading headlines. Maybe they were encouraged by the prospect of a new export market opening up in Mexico (paywall), per the Wall Street Journal. Time will tell whether they are incredibly stubborn, cursed with poor timing, or brilliant visionaries.