US drilling rig count gains 9 to 1,059

Petroleum News

The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. was up nine the week ending Jan. 25 to 1,059.

At this time last year there were 947 active rigs.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that 862 rigs targeted oil (up 10 from the previous week) and 197 targeted natural gas (down one).

The company said 59 of the U.S. holes were directional, 932 were horizontal and 68 were vertical.

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

Louisiana was up two rigs; Alaska and Colorado were each up one rig.

Oklahoma was unchanged.

California, Pennsylvania and Wyoming were each down one rig.

Texas was down four rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with 11 active rigs, up from five a year ago.

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

- Petroleum News