US rig count increases by 12 to 312

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Baker Hughes U.S. rotary rig count rose to 312 for the week ending Nov. 13, up by 12 rigs from 300 the previous week, continuing a gradual increase that began in mid-August. The count is still down substantially from a year ago, by 494 from 806.

When the count hit 244 the week of Aug. 14, it was not just the low for 2020, but the lowest it has been since the Houston based oilfield services company began issuing a weekly U.S. rig count in 1944.

Prior to this year, the low was 404 rigs in May 2016. The count peaked at 4,530 in 1981.

At the beginning of the year the count was in the low 790s, 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 when it gained back 10 rigs.

This week’s count includes 236 rigs targeting oil, up 10 from the previous week but down 438 from a year ago, 73 rigs targeting gas, up two from the previous week but down 56 from a year ago and three miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from the previous week and up three from a year ago.

Twenty-three of the holes were directional, 267 were horizontal and 22 were vertical.

Alaska count unchanged

New Mexico (53) was up by three rigs; Pennsylvania (20) was up by two rigs; Louisiana (38) and Oklahoma (14) were each up by a single rig.

Ohio (4) was down by one rig from the previous week.

Rig counts were unchanged in the remaining states: Alaska (3), California (4), Colorado (4), North Dakota (11), Utah (3), West Virginia (7) and Wyoming (3).

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with three active rigs Nov. 13, unchanged from the previous week but down by five from a year ago.

The rig count in the Permian, the most active basin in the country, was up by seven from the previous week at 154, but down 254 from a count of 408 a year ago.

- KRISTEN NELSON