Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes (BHI) said Friday that U.S. active rigs were up a fourth consecutive week/down this week after gains in each of the three previous weeks, to cap the end of a week that saw it's two biggest competitors, Schlumberger (SLB) - Get Report and Halliburton (HAL) - Get Report, report unimpressive second quarter earnings. 

The Houston company reported that U.S. oil rigs were up 14 to 371, marking the seventh active rig increase reported by the oilfield services giant in the past eight weeks. 

U.S. natural gas rigs were down one to 88 from 89 last week and miscellaneous rigs were up for the first time in months, gaining two rigs to sit at three total.

The U.S. offshore count is back down to 19, after gaining three rigs last week. Offshore rigs are down by nine year-over-year.

The uptick in oil rigs is no surprise to industry followers, including Piper Jaffray analysts John Daniel and John Watson, who said this past weekend that they see the U.S. land rig count continuing to grow in future weeks at a pace similar to last week's 9-rig build, despite persisting lower oil prices following Brexit. 

Meanwhile, Halliburton said on its earnings report conference call with analysts Wednesday that the North American space is improving, and it, along with industry leading Schlumberger, say the bottom is in the rearview.

That being said, Halliburton's management team pointed out this week what analysts have been signaling for months: the U.S. will come nowhere near the more than 2000 rigs it saw active at the peak of the cycle in 2014. 

Halliburton's president Jeff Miller said Wednesday, "900 is the the 2000 for the U.S. rig activity," adding that the company believes it will take 900 rigs to consume all of the available horsepower in the North American market. 

Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard said on a conference call Friday that the company is "clear that we have reached the bottom of activity in North American land."

But the recovery is "not a v shape recovery, but a steady increase in rig count, as with wells coming from docking entry," he cautioned. 

"The activity will be more slow and steady with higher utilization, some contribution to margins."

Indeed, many are still cautious of the sustainability of this build despite belief that the rig count will continue to show signs of life in upcoming weeks. 

"We can also find shortcomings to the U.S. rig count bounce, even as we expect such bounce to run a little further," Jefferies analysts said this week.

Baker Hughes' rig count is down 414 rigs from last year's count of 876, with oil rigs down 288, gas rigs down 128, and miscellaneous rigs up two.