Any increase in the number of crude oil and natural gas drilling rigs in use around the world should increase molybdenum demand in the near term, according to an analysis by New York-based Dahlman Rose & Co. being reported on MiningWeekly.com.
For the past two months, international drilling rig counts have been under 1,000 but analysts Anthony Young and Anthony Rizzuto write in a research note that any pickup in demand for oil country tubular goods, or OCTG, will boost molybdenum demand and prices in coming months. While they acknowledge that large inventories of OCTG have to be worked through at service centers and in the field, they believe any increase in rig counts could boost OCTG steelmaking.
