US drilling rig count drops 11 to 1,027

Petroleum News

The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by 11 the week ending March 8 to 1,027.

A year ago the count was 984 active rigs.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that 834 rigs targeted oil (down nine from the previous week) and 193 targeted natural gas (down two).

The company said 67 of the U.S. holes were directional, 904 were horizontal and 56 were vertical.

Among major oil and gas producing states, Pennsylvania was up by three rigs; Louisiana and Oklahoma were each up by one.

California, Colorado and Wyoming were unchanged.

Texas, the most active state with 502 rigs, was down one from the previous week.

New Mexico was down by two rigs, North Dakota was down by three and Alaska was down by four.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with seven active rigs, compared to nine rigs a year ago.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May 2016 at 404.

- Petroleum News