|
US rotary drilling rig count 296, up by 9
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Baker Hughes U.S. rotary rig count was at 296 for the week ending Oct. 30, up by nine rigs from 287 the previous week, continuing an increase that began in mid-August. The count is still down substantially from a year ago, by 526 from 822.
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.
This week’s count includes 221 rigs targeting oil, up 10 from the previous week and down 470 from a year ago, 72 rigs targeting gas, down one from the previous week and down 58 from a year ago and three miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from the previous week and up two from a year ago.
Twenty-two of the holes were directional, 254 were horizontal and 20 were vertical.
Alaska count unchanged The rig count for Texas (133), which has the most active rigs in the country, was up by eight from the previous week, but down 283 from a year ago.
New Mexico (47) was up by two rigs.
Oklahoma (14) was down by a single rig from the previous week.
Rig counts were unchanged in the remaining states: Alaska (3), California (4), Colorado (4), Louisiana (37), North Dakota (11), Ohio (6), Pennsylvania (18), Utah (3), West Virginia (8) and Wyoming (3).
Baker Hughes shows Alaska with three active rigs Oct. 30, unchanged from the previous week and down by four from a year ago.
The rig count in the Permian, the most active basin in the country, was up by nine from the previous week at 142, but down 274 from a count of 417 a year ago.
- KRISTEN NELSON
| 