National drilling rig count down 3 at 1,082

Petroleum News

The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. was down up by three Nov. 21 to 1,079 when Baker Hughes published their Thanksgiving week rotary rig count.

At this time last year there were 923 active rigs.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that 885 rigs targeted oil (down three from the previous week) and 194 targeted natural gas (unchanged).

The company said 73 of the U.S. holes were directional, 929 were horizontal and 77 were vertical.

Among major oil and gas producing states, Louisiana was up by four rigs and New Mexico was up by three.

California, Colorado and Pennsylvania were unchanged.

Alaska was down by one; Oklahoma and Wyoming were each down by two; North Dakota and Texas were each down by three rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with five active rigs, the same as a year ago.

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

- Petroleum News