Speaking during her company’s annual Steel Markets North America conference, Leonard said that although the forecast well counts are lower than the number of wells drilled at the peak in 2014, the counts exceed the number drilled in each of the last three years.

She also said she expects the steel intensity of those wells to increase as drillers will likely need to begin drilling deeper. 

"We’ve already drilled the cheap stuff,” said Leonard, a project manager with S&P Global's oil and gas consulting unit. "This is all going to consume more steel and ultimately produce more energy than any of the wells that we drilled in 2014."