No surprise here: Baker Hughes (BHI)  has reported another drop in active U.S. oil rigs. 

The third largest oilfield equipment and services provider issued its weekly active rotary rig report counts Friday, noting a 9-rig decline in U.S. active rigs to 406.

The U.S. rig count represents a 2% decline from last week's number of 415, with oil rigs down 10 to 318, and gas rigs up 1 to 87.

U.S. Rig Count is down 482 rigs from last year at 888, with oil rigs down 342, gas rigs down 136, and miscellaneous rigs down 4.

The U.S. Offshore rig count is 22, down 2 from last week, and down 12 rigs year over year.

The report follows a somewhat tumultuous week for the oilfield equipment and services industry, as Halliburton (HAL) - Get Report joined Schlumberger (SLB) - Get Report in slowing activity in Venezuela due to its largest customer's inability to pay in a reasonable amount of time, according to a May 12 research note from Credit Suisse analyst James Wicklund.  

The industry follower also wrote that Chevron (CVX) - Get Reportmay bemoving all early phase engineering work in house as it has reportedly found a lack of "technical competencies" in some of its major projects.

As oilfield services are currently pushing to be much more involved in early front-end engineering design work, Chevron's decision can not be viewed as a positive for the industry, Wicklund wrote.

But this week was not all bad news, according to Wicklund, who highlighted Thursday's International Energy Agency (IEA) report as a bright spot. The agency noted better than expected global demand in the first quarter, growing at a pace of 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd), led higher by strong demand in India, China, and Russia. For the year, the IEA continues to expect demand growth to be 1.2 million bpd.

Talk of increased global demand has sparked plenty of speculation about a $50 per barrel of oil world, and oil prices hovering around $46 a barrel since Wednesday certainly lends credit to the thought.

Credit Suisse wrote that while Saudi Arabia's "ability and willingness to increase production" has been a hot topic as of late, Court Smith of shipbroker MJLF & Associates noted that "the speculation hasn't yet translated into an observable rise in seaborne crude volumes."

So while the debate over global demand has not concluded, there continues to be reason to temper any expectation that U.S. producers will add rigs this quarter, as Baker Hughes has stated it doesn't expect the trend of declining rigs to reverse anytime soon, and many analysts are hesitant to believe oil prices have stabilized just yet. 

"Operators seem to be competing with each other to show they can be the first to re-ramp activity because of improving efficiencies and lower well costs," Sterne Agee analyst Tim Rezvan noted earlier this week. "We acknowledge the rampant reduction in full-cycle costs we are seeing, but believe this commentary is not in investors' best interests, considering we have little conviction that [West Texas Intermediate crude] will hold the $40 [per barrel] level this summer."

Baker Hughes recently forecasted the North America rig count to fall 30% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter average, and it's important to note that production tends to lag an increase in active rigs by as long as a few years.

That's not to say an uptick in active rigs would not drive intraday stock prices, all other things equal, as analysts have conceded. But Baker Hughes has said it doesn't expect U.S. rig count will begin to stabilize until the second half of 2016, nor does it anticipate activity to meaningfully increase this year.

A continuous steady decline in the active U.S. rig count this deep into the down cycle, meanwhile, is not a considerable stock mover in and of itself for oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) companies like ExxonMobil (XOM) - Get Report and Chevron or oilfield service and equipment providers, according to industry followers.

Still, while many in the industry agree with Baker Hughes skepticism, some analysts have pointed to Anadarko Basin- and Permian Basin-focused players, such as Diamondback Energy (FANG) - Get Report  and Newfield Exploration (NFX) , as the most likely to increase production and possibly even add rigs in the second half.

"Entering [the first quarter] with a plan of action in the event of flat $35 [per barrel] crude, FANG continues to prove its top-tier asset base and peer-leading margin structure warrant poll position amongst producers who can put rigs back to work first," Deutsche Bank analyst Josh Silverstein noted recently.

But Moody's said late last week that oilfield service providers may still be impacted negatively if lower commodity prices prolong reduced spending by E&P companies.

"Moody's expects the combination of volatile energy prices and suppressed E&P spending will drive OFS industry EBITDA lower by 30%-40% in 2016 and stall any chance of a recovery until at least late 2017," the service reported. "Moreover, even if oil prices rebound modestly in 2016, OFS recovery will lag, given the industry's overcapacity and the gradual increase in drilling activity."