“Davidson” submits:

Updated E&P Activity and Efficiency Indices using the trend of the Gas Production Index which lags other data by 2mos shows a new high in the Activity Index and a turn higher in the Efficiency Index. Activity and Efficiency indices are constructed as indicated in each chart. There was a period of higher employment as production slowed, but now employment has slowed while production has accelerated. The reasoning based on reading industry reports is that crews were added to complete oil and gas pipelines to increase takeaway capacity. Existing capacity being at maximum utilization stalled production. It appears we have worked through this bottleneck.

The US continues to produce more oil/gas with proportionately fewer employees. The Baker/GE North Am  Rig Count is 26%+ below its 2018 peak and continues on its downtrend. More from less is the result of applying ‘Lean Thinking’ to the US E&P industry. Very impressive!

(Click on image to enlarge)

(Click on image to enlarge)