Regional Interests

The Oil Rig Count

By Stacey Vanek Smith,

Cardiff Garcia

Published March 23, 2018 at 1:04 PM PDT

The Baker Hughes Rig Count is a tally of all the rigs that are drilling for oil in the US.

It comes out every Friday, and it's often used as a gauge of the American oil business.

But technological advances in the industry could end up making the Baker Hughes index less relevant.

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Regional Interests

Stacey Vanek Smith

Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money. She's also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she's traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country's dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she's spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China.

See stories by Stacey Vanek Smith

Cardiff Garcia

Cardiff Garcia is a co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, along with Stacey Vanek Smith. He joined NPR in November 2017.

See stories by Cardiff Garcia