Drillers forecast falling rig count and soft prices

By Noah Brenner Houston

 02 August 2012 22:59 GMT

US drillers have warned of a declining rig count and softening prices as operators in the last quarter began to drop rigs that were under long-term contract in an effort to cut costs.

Nabors, which owns the largest land drilling fleet in the world, reported a net loss of $73 million including an impairment charge for natural gas acreage that it holds, and blamed the results on a weak US market.

While demand for high performance rigs built specifically for the US shale plays remain strong, many drillers are seeing negotiating power shift to operators as more of those rigs enter the market.

“We do not yet foresee a sharp downturn but rather a moderate drop in rig count exacerbated by competitors offering uncontracted, newly built…

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