This segment is from Tuesday's edition of 'Digging for Value', in which sector analysts Joel South and Taylor Muckerman discuss energy & materials news with host Alison Southwick. The twice-weekly show can be viewed on Tuesdays & Thursdays. It can also be found on Twitter, along with our extended coverage of the energy & materials sectors @TMFEnergy.
When attempting to predict future levels of natural gas production, monthly rig counts from companies like Baker Hughes were relied upon as leading indicators. Most thought that a decline in rigs meant natural gas production would suffer in the future. However, that has been becoming less and less the case lately, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration put out data on this topic this week to support that notion. Motley Fool analyst Taylor Muckerman suggests looking at quarterly conference calls from companies like Halliburton (HAL -1.46%) and Schlumberger (SLB -1.05%) to better gauge activity levels.
Service companies like these have taken advantage of the boom, but who else has?
