Wells not completed while oil prices are low might foreshorten recovery of North American drilling, even if the upturn arrives sooner than expected, analysts warn. A drilling slump outrunning most forecasts has evoked predictions of a prompt production decline able to help correct an oversupplied oil market ( OGJ Online, Mar. 12, 2015 ). But James Crandall and Mar Bianchi of Cowen & Co. , acknowledging in a research note that the first-quarter US rig count is “falling even more quickly than our forecast had assumed,” think recovery might be short-lived. They expect the rig count by the quarter’s end to fall below 1,100, of which about 1,050 will be land units. Predicting that drilling will reach bottom at 950-1,000 for all rigs by early in the third quarter, they say recovery could begin by the fourth quarter, lifting the rig count by perhaps 150. […]