New Poll

Time for a new poll. I really dislike doing these things, as I mentioned the other day. But ...

I said this current poll would be up for only a couple of days. This one had to do with the severe Russian weather storm, one of the worst on record. I was curious if folks were even aware of the storm prior to seeing the story linked here.

Results of the poll (of the 52 that even bothered to vote):

• Yes, 12% said they were aware of the storm prior to seeing it on the blog;
• No, 56% said they were not aware of the storm prior to seeing it on the blog; and,
• 33% asked, "what storm." (Due to rounding, numbers add up to 101%).

So, for lack of anything more interesting tonight, here's the question. The active rigs in North Dakota hit an intra-boom low of 180 a few weeks ago, but the number of active rigs has gradually melted back up to 188, which has surprised me. I thought we would head to 175 and level off there.

The other day, Lynn Helms (Director, NDIC) opined that "we" would eventually get back to 200 rigs which would become the new "norm."

So, knowing that there are a lot of folks who have their collective ears close to the Bakken ground, I'm curious if you agree with Lynn Helms.

Do you think there will be 200 active rigs in North Dakota by September 30, 2013?