US rig count drops to 279, another new low

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes’ weekly count of rotary rigs drilling in the U.S. continues to drop, hitting a new low of 279 for the week ending June 12, down five from the previous week and down 690 from a year ago.

Prior to this year, the low count by the Houston oilfield services company, which has issued the count since 1944, was 404 rigs in May 2016.

New low records have now been set for six weeks in a row: 374 rigs on May 8 of this year; 339 rigs on May 15; 318 on May 22; 301 on May 29; 284 on June 5; and this week’s new low of 279.

The count has been dropping steadily: down by five, 17, 17, 21, 35, 34, 64, 73, 62, 64, 44 and 20 rigs respectively, a total of 456, over the previous 12 weeks.

The company said 199 rigs targeted oil, down seven from the previous week and down 589 from a year ago, while 78 targeted gas, up two from the previous week and down 103 from a year ago. There were two miscellaneous rigs active, unchanged from the previous week and up by two from a year ago.

Twenty-two of the holes were directional, 246 were horizontal and 11 were vertical.

Alaska count unchanged

Rig counts were unchanged for Alaska (3), California (4), Colorado (6), Louisiana (34), Ohio (9) and Wyoming (1).

North Dakota (11), Oklahoma (10) and Texas (114) were each down by one rig from the previous week.

New Mexico (56) and West Virginia (6) were each down by two rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with three active rigs for the week ending June 12, down by two from a year ago.

The largest rig count drop by basin was in the Permian, which has the most active rigs at 137 and was down four from the previous week and down 304 from a year ago.

Baker Hughes has issued weekly rig counts for the U.S. and Canada since 1944 and began issuing international rig counts in 1975.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. This week’s count of 279 is a new low, surpassing lows set in the previous five weeks. Prior to that the previous low was 404 rigs in May 2016.