Baker Hughes in Houston has reported today that the number of rigs drilling for natural gas in the US increased by 5 this week to a total of 710. Further it states that this rig count has increased by 9 over the last 10 weeks. But to put this into perspective, last September the natural gas rig count peaked at 1,600.

Natural gas producers cut exploration activity by over 50% in response to falling natural gas prices, and slowing demand due to the economic recession. The net deliveries for natural gas are still adding more then 65Bcf to inventory in the US which still supports concerns that natural gas will reach its physical storage limitation. Storage facilities will could reach full capacity of ~3.9-4.0 Tcf  – before the end of October. Total natural gas  storage as of September 18 was 3.525 trillion cubic feet, 16% above the five-year average and 16.9% above last year’s level.

Reuters: US Natural gas rig count climbs 5 to 710 for week