North America Rig Count Falls for 7 Straight Weeks to 680 as Eagle Ford, Cana Woodford Lead Losses and Capital Discipline Holds

North America's oil and gas rig count extended its longest losing streak of 2026 with a seventh consecutive weekly decline, dropping 10 rigs week-over-week to reach 680 total active rigs, according to the latest Baker Hughes weekly survey released April 14.

The United States accounted for 545 rigs, broken down as 411 oil-directed, 127 gas-directed, and 7 miscellaneous. Canada posted 135 rigs, comprising 83 oil and 52 gas rigs. Combined, North America has shed 41 rigs compared to the same week one year ago, with the United States down 38 and Canada down 3 on a year-over-year basis.

Which Basins Took the Hardest Hits

The Cana Woodford in Oklahoma suffered the sharpest single-week decline, losing 3 rigs to fall deeper into multi-month lows. The Eagle Ford in south Texas gave back 2 rigs, while the Arkoma Woodford and Williston Basin each dropped 1 rig. At the state level, New Mexico and Oklahoma each shed 2 rigs, while Texas, North Dakota, and Utah each lost 1. The only bright spots were Louisiana, which added 3 rigs, and Wyoming, which picked up 1.

The Permian Basin, North America's most prolific producing play, held relatively steady with roughly 104 active rigs and current production tracking near 7.12 million barrels per day. Despite West Texas Intermediate crude trading around $91 per barrel, the Permian's rig count has not responded with the surge many observers expected at that price level.

Capital Discipline Trumps the $91 Price Signal

The persistence of the downturn even at elevated WTI prices reflects a fundamental shift in producer behavior since the pandemic-era recovery. The Dallas Federal Reserve's first-quarter 2026 energy survey, which polls executives at exploration and production companies based in Texas and surrounding states, found that 75 percent of large producers now expect to drill fewer wells in 2026 than they had originally budgeted at the start of the year.

Only 21 percent of surveyed executives said they planned to significantly increase the number of wells drilled, a fraction that stands in stark contrast to the breakeven economics of the mid-2010s shale boom. New well breakeven prices in the Permian Basin now range between $63 and $70 per barrel, up 30 to 40 percent from roughly $45 to $50 per barrel in 2020, according to Dallas Fed data. Eagle Ford breakevens sit near $63 per barrel.

Public companies in particular are under intensifying pressure from shareholders to return capital through buybacks and dividends rather than plow cash into new drilling programs. The uncertainty surrounding global demand, including the IEA's projection of the first annual oil demand contraction since the COVID pandemic, has reinforced that cautious posture even as the Hormuz supply disruption pushed crude well above $90.

US Gas Rigs Bucking the Oil Trend

While oil rigs have borne the brunt of the year-over-year decline in the United States, down 61 rigs compared to April 2025, natural gas rigs have moved in the opposite direction, adding 22 rigs over the same period. That divergence reflects the widening spread between soft domestic Henry Hub prices, which hovered near $2.65 per MMBtu in mid-April, and the robust export netbacks available through liquefied natural gas terminals operating near maximum capacity on the Gulf Coast.

In Canada, oil rigs are down 8 year-over-year while gas rigs have added 5, mirroring the continental trend of producers shifting incremental capital toward natural gas development in anticipation of continued LNG export demand from Europe and Asia.

Outlook: Low Growth, Not a Crash

The seven-week decline does not signal a collapse in North American drilling activity but rather a recalibration. Activity overall remains substantially above pandemic-era lows. ConocoPhillips and other major Permian operators have publicly committed to volume growth measured in low single-digit percentages rather than the aggressive double-digit expansion of prior cycles. Halliburton and other oilfield services companies have flagged softening North American completions activity in their forward guidance, although international demand remains robust.

With OPEC+ supply additions returning to market and geopolitical uncertainty keeping price volatility elevated, most analysts expect the North American rig count to trade in a narrow range through mid-year 2026 rather than breaking decisively in either direction. The next Baker Hughes weekly update, scheduled for April 17, will indicate whether this week's modest bounce in Louisiana and Wyoming signals an inflection point or merely noise within a broader downtrend.