>lanman, he says there are 50 land rigs running in Europe, not that there are only 50 land rigs in Europe. There is a difference.

Yes, you are correct. The most popular rig counts come from Baker Hughes, and this

is from their FAQ:

To be counted as active a rig must be on location and be drilling or 'turning to the right'. A rig is considered active from the moment the well is "spudded" until it reaches target depth or "TD". Rigs that are in transit from one location to another, rigging up or being used in non-drilling activities such as workovers, completions or production testing, are NOT counted as active.

It's hard to say how reliable these numbers are though, for Hungary they have:

Nov: 5 oil, 0 gas

Dec: 3 oil, 0 gas

We had a Hungarian article on Dec 29 showing Exxon drilling away on the Hod well. I thought they were looking for gas ??? :)

They show 101 active rigs for all of Europe in Dec 2008.