June 2011 | Welded steel tube & pipe
OCTG demand has not skipped a beat: Americas Market Analysis
The energy market is generally considered to be one of the strongest sectors in the US economy and is expected to continue to be so into the foreseeable future.
Demand has been steady to up for oil country tubular goods and is expected to remain so for the foreseeable future, pushed primarily by oil and natural gas liquids. As of June 24, the US drill rig count increased to 1,882, which is up 21.6% year on year and up 1.2 percent from a week earlier. In what is historically unusual, this strength was very oil centric. Traditionally a great majority of US drilling is for natural gas, but nearly 55% of the rigs are drilling for oil. In fact, oil rigs increased 72% year on year while natural gas rigs were down 8.9%. This is not surprising given that oil prices, while falling back slightly to $93 a barrel, remain at very profitable levels, while at $4.32/mmBtu, natural gas is not attracting as much activity, especially given that natural gas storage levels are continuing to rise. ...
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