US land rig day rates apparently have hit bottom and are likely to remain in an extended trough for the rest of the year, according to RigData’s Day Rate Report. That’s not to say the US average day rate won’t slip again this year but more to point out that sequential changes in day rates going forward are more likely to be small—whether up or down—than the hefty declines seen so far this year. Looking at the straight average day rate—aggregating rates reported across all rig classes and all regions—the cumulative net decline for 2015 totaled -12% from 4Q 2014. That breaks out to QTQ falls of -3.4% in Q1 and -8.6% in Q2. While it looks like the decline rate accelerated in Q2, that’s only partly true. The biggest sequential drop of the year in average day rate (-4.5%) occurred from March to April. So the decline rate accelerated in Q1 and through the first month of Q2 before starting to shrink again in May and June, with the sequential drop in June only -0.4%.