US drilling rig count drops by 10 to 1,006

Petroleum News

The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by 10 the week ending March 29 to 1,006.

A year ago the count was 993 active rigs.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that 816 rigs targeted oil (down eight from the previous week) and 190 targeted natural gas (down two).

The company said 64 of the U.S. holes were directional, 891 were horizontal and 51 were vertical.

Among major oil and gas producing states, Louisiana and North Dakota were each up by three rigs.

New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wyoming were unchanged.

Oklahoma was down by one rig.

California was down by two rigs, Alaska was down by three rigs and Colorado was down by four rigs.

Texas, the most active state with 491 rigs, was down six from the previous week.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with six active rigs, down three from a count of nine a year ago.

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

- Petroleum News