The supply of natural gas rigs and the trained drilling crews and support equipment is now a small fraction of what it was 4~5 years ago.
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by this do you mean that there are fewer men and equipment in absolute numbers compared to 4~5 years ago or do you mean all the men & machines that can be used are being used so there is no extra capacity of men and machines to amp up production as there was 4~5 years ago
I mean there was a big transition of rigs and the folks that work and support them from Natural Gas to Oil.
There are currently 1,357 rigs chasing oil, 376 chasing gas (5 more unidentified), total 1,738 rigs.
Five years ago there was 376 rigs chasing oil, 1,428 chasing gas (6 more unidentified), total 1,760 rigs
Our growth in oil production has climbed while our natural gas production has flatten out.
I believe our oil production growth rate will continue as in the past 5 years is not possible without huge increases in oil prices.
It takes very little money to move an existing rig from natural gas to oil. It takes far more money to ramp up production of building rigs and all the associated equipment like hydro frac system to keep expanding oil drill like we have been doing.
Sorry, forgot the link for the data source on rig counts
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MjA3NzUzfENoaWxkSUQ9LTF8VHlwZT0z&t=1