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US rotary rig count drops again, down by 9
Week of May 29 4th week in a row of decreases; steepest, down 17 rigs, reported May 12; 6 states down this week, while only 2 up Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Baker Hughes' U.S. rotary drilling rig count was down by nine to 711 the week ending May 26, from 720 on May 19. The steepest recent drop was 17 on May 12, the steepest drop since June of 2020. The May 26 count is down by 16 from a count of 727 for the same period a year ago, and the lowest the count has been since early May 2022.
The count dropped in six of the past eight weeks, with the current count down from 751 eight weeks ago and down from a high so far this year of 771 on Jan. 20. The high for 2022 was a count of 784 rigs at the beginning of December.
When the count dropped to 244 in mid-August 2020, it was the lowest the domestic rotary rig count had been since the Houston based oilfield services company began issuing weekly U.S. numbers in 1944.
Prior to 2020, the low was 404 rigs in May 2016. The count peaked at 4,530 in 1981.
The count was in the low 790s at the beginning of 2020 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, where it remained through mid-March, when it began to fall, dropping below what had been the historic low in early May with a count of 374 and continuing to drop through the third week of August 2020 when it gained back 10 rigs.
The May 26 count includes 570 rigs targeting oil, down by five from the previous week and down by four from 574 a year ago, with 137 rigs targeting natural gas, down by four from the previous week and down 14 from 151 a year ago, and four miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from the previous week and up by two from a year ago.
Fifty-two of the rigs reported May 26 were drilling directional wells, 642 were drilling horizontal wells and 17 were drilling vertical wells.
Alaska rig count down by 1 Texas (359) was up by two rigs from the previous week and Wyoming (16) was up by one.
Oklahoma (46) was down by five rigs week over week. Louisiana (54) and Utah (12) were down by two rigs.
Alaska (7), Colorado (17) and New Mexico (108) were each down by a single rig.
Rig counts in other states were unchanged from the previous week: California (2), North Dakota (37), Ohio (10), Pennsylvania (24) and West Virginia (15).
Baker Hughes shows Alaska with seven rotary rigs active May 26, down by one from the previous week and down by one from a year ago when eight rigs were active. Seven of the Alaska rigs were onshore, down by one from the previous week, and no rigs working offshore, unchanged the previous week.
The rig count in the Permian, the most active basin in the country, was up by one from the previous week at 350 and up by eight from 342 a year ago.
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