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US drilling rig count jumps 15 to 338
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Baker Hughes U.S. rotary drilling rig count had its largest weekly increase this year, up by 15 for the week ending Dec. 11 to 338, but still down by 461 from a count of 799 a year ago.
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.
The Dec. 11 count includes 258 rigs targeting oil, up 12 from the previous week but down 409 from 667 a year ago, 79 rigs targeting gas, up by four from the previous week but down 50 from 129 a year ago, and one miscellaneous rig, down by one from the previous week and down two from a year ago.
Seventeen of the holes were directional, 306 were horizontal and 15 were vertical.
Alaska count unchanged Texas, with the most active rigs at 155, was up six from the previous week, although still down 245 from 400 a year ago.
Wyoming (5) was up by four rigs from the previous week; Pennsylvania (19) was up by two rigs.
New Mexico (60), Ohio (5) and Oklahoma (14) were each up by a single rig from the previous week.
Rig counts were unchanged in the remaining states: Alaska (3), California (6), Colorado (7), Louisiana (40), North Dakota (11), Utah (3) and West Virginia (9).
Baker Hughes shows Alaska with three active rigs Dec. 11, unchanged from the previous week but down by three from a year ago.
The rig count in the Permian, the most active basin in the country, was up by four from the previous week at 168, but down 232 from a count of 400 a year ago.
International count up Baker Hughes released its international count for November on Dec. 4.
The international count averaged 669, up by 13 rigs from the October average, with land rigs up seven to 509 and offshore rigs up six to 160.
The company said the international average rig count for November is down 427 from 1,096 last year - with land rigs down 340 and offshore rigs down 87.
The U.S. rig count averaged 310 in November, up 30 from the October average and down 500 year-over-year.
The average Canada rig count was 95 in November, up from 80 in October and down 41 year-over-year.
The worldwide count for November (international and North America combined) averaged 1,074, up 58 from October and down 968 from 2,042 in November 2019.
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