US drilling rig count holds steady at 790

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes reports the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. the week ending Feb. 7 is unchanged from the previous week at 790. The count is down by 259 from 1,049 a year ago.

In its weekly rig count the Houston oilfield services company said 676 rigs targeted oil, up one from the previous week and down 178 from a year ago, while 111 targeted natural gas, down one from the previous week and down 84 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 46 of the holes were directional, 711 were horizontal and 33 were vertical.

The New Mexico rig count was up by three from the previous week.

Alaska and Utah were each up by one rig.

Rig counts were unchanged from the previous week in California, Colorado, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

Texas, which at 394 has the largest number of active rigs in the country, was down by one rig from the previous week, as was West Virginia.

Oklahoma was down by three rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with 10 rigs active for the week ending Feb. 7, down one from a year ago.

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

January’s international rig count

The average U.S. rig count for January was 791, Baker Hughes said, down 13 from 804 in December and down 274 from 1,065 in January 2019. The average Canadian rig count for January was 204, up 69 from 135 in December and up 28 from 176 in January 2019.

The average worldwide count - international and North American combined - was 2,073 in January, up 30 from 2,043 in December and down 192 from 2,265 in January 2019.

- KRISTEN NELSON