Perhaps the most surprising sign of a recovery in the US onshore drilling industry has been the abrupt about-face for day rates, an analysis by RigData, a unit of S&P Global Platts, showed Friday. The first quarter has seen a 3.5% spike in the average day rate to $14,600, according to RigData. While that is still down from a record $19,015 in Q4 2014, it is the biggest quarter-to-quarter jump since the previous post-bust recovery in 2010. A major contributing factor to the day rate recovery has been the erosion of the rig glut, which can be monitored by tracking the available rig ratio. The ratio is calculated by dividing the number of available rigs by the number of marketed rigs. Once this ratio has sustained above a certain threshold, then day rates soften; when it trends below that threshold, day rates begin to rise. On a nationwide basis, […]