US drilling rig count rises by 14 to 813

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes reports the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose by 14 to 813 the week ending Dec. 22, following a week in which the count held steady at 799 from the previous week, and reversing a run of dropping counts.

In its weekly count the Houston oilfield services company said the active rig count was down 267 from 1,080 active rigs a year ago.

The company reported that 685 rigs targeted oil (up 18 from the previous week; down 198 from a year ago) and 125 targeted natural gas (down four from the previous week; down 69 from a year ago). There were three miscellaneous rigs active (unchanged from the previous week and up by three from a year ago).

The company said 51 of the U.S. holes were directional, 706 were horizontal and 51 were vertical.

Texas, with the largest number of active rigs in the country, was up 18 rigs from the previous week to 418.

Louisiana was up two rigs; New Mexico and Oklahoma were each up one.

Rig counts were unchanged in Alaska, Colorado, Ohio, Utah and West Virginia.

California, North Dakota and Pennsylvania were each down by one rig from the previous week; Wyoming was down by two.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with six rigs active for the week ending Dec. 22, up by one from a year ago.

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

- KRISTEN NELSON