US drilling rig count drops by 15 to 781 Click here to go to the full PDF version of this issue, with any maps, photos or other artwork that appears in some of the articles. Kristen Nelson Petroleum News The U.S. active drilling rig count dropped by 15 to 781 the week ending Jan. 10, down from 796 the previous week and down by 294 from 1,075 a year ago. The company reported that 659 rigs targeted oil (down 11 from the previous week; down 214 from a year ago) and 119 targeted natural gas (down four from the previous week; down 83 from a year ago). There were three miscellaneous rigs active (unchanged from the previous week and up by three from a year ago). The company said 45 of the holes were directional, 698 were horizontal and 38 were vertical. Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were each up one rig from the previous week. Rig counts were unchanged from the previous week in California, Utah and West Virginia. Alaska, Colorado, North Dakota, Ohio and Wyoming were each down by one rig. New Mexico was down by two rigs and Louisiana was down by three. Texas, the state with the most active rigs in the country at 396, was down by seven from the previous week. Baker Hughes shows Alaska with seven rigs active for the week ending Jan. 10, down two from a year ago. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May 2016 at 404. December worldwide count up Baker Hughes released December worldwide rig counts Jan. 8. The company said the December international rig count averaged 1,104 (up eight from November and up 79 from December 2018), North America averaged 939 (down seven) and worldwide the average was 2,043 rigs (up one), 1,761 land rigs and 282 offshore. Regionally the U.S. has the most active rigs, followed by the Middle East (430), Asia Pacific (226), Latin America (191), Europe (139) and Africa (118). The U.S. rig count averaged 804 in December, Baker Hughes said, down six from November and down 274 from December 2018. The Canadian rig count averaged 135 in December, down one from November and down six from December 2018. - KRISTEN NELSON Print this story | Email it to an associate.