US rig count drop continues, down 3 to 799

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes reports the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. continued to fall the week ending Dec. 6, down three from the previous week to 799, following drops of one, three, 11, five, eight and 21 the previous six weeks.

In its weekly rig count the Houston oilfield services company said the active rig count was down 276 from 1,075 active rigs a year ago.

The company reported that 663 rigs targeted oil (down five from the previous week; down 214 from a year ago) and 133 targeted natural gas (up two from the previous week; down 65 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 52 of the U.S. holes were directional, 695 were horizontal and 52 were vertical.

North Dakota and Pennsylvania were each up by one rig from the previous week.

Rig counts in most states were unchanged from the previous week: Alaska, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Louisiana and Oklahoma were each down by one rig.

Texas, with the most active rigs at 400, was down five from the previous week.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with seven rigs active for the week ending Dec. 6, unchanged from a year ago.

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

Worldwide counts

Baker Hughes also provided an average U.S. rig count for November - 810, down 38 from an average of 848 in October and down 267 from an average of 1,077 in November 2018. The company said the average Canadian rig count for November was 136, down nine from 145 in October and down 62 from 198 in November 2018.

Worldwide the rig count was 2,042 in November, down 81 from 2,123 in October and down 224 from 2k266 in November 2018.

- KRISTEN NELSON