Venezuela's Oil Rig Count Remains Zero

 Venezuela's Oil Rig Count Remains Zero

One of the key tools we use for predicting future oil production is how many drills are at work (see, for example, our report to SouthCom linked below, using stochastics and regression analysis to accurately forecast the rapid collapse of Venezuela oil production in 2016).   

In January of 1998 when Venezuela was producing 3.5 million bpd, Venezuela had 110 drilling rigs in operation.  The number of rigs and the amount of oil produced has been falling correspondingly ever since. 

In April 2020, Venezuela's already low rig count of 25 fell to just 14 -- a number last seen in 1988 -- as collapsing Covid oil prices and OFAC restrictions on Chevron and the oil service providers led to further cuts.   As a further result, in May Venezuela's rig count fell to two -- and only one of those was actually drilling for oil (the other was for gas). 

In June, Venezuela had lost its only rig drilling for oil, leaving the country with just one rig drilling for gas.  In September, Venezuela lost its only rig drilling for gas, and since then the Maduro Regime has had NO RIGS at all drilling for either oil or gas.  

In February Venezuela once again had no rigs drilling for oil, now for the ninth straight month.

 Venezuela -- the country with the largest oil reserves in the world -- does not have a single drill at work after over a 110 years of drilling