US drilling rig count drops 21 to 991

Petroleum News

The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by 21 the week ending April 26 to 991.

A year ago the count was 1,021 active rigs.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that 805 rigs targeted oil (down 20 from the previous week) and 186 targeted natural gas (down one).

The company said 71 of the U.S. holes were directional, 873 were horizontal and 47 were vertical.

The Colorado rig count was up one from the previous week - the only state with a week-over-week increase in active rigs.

Rig counts in Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia were unchanged from the previous week.

Alaska, California, Louisiana, New Mexico and Pennsylvania were each down by one rig.

Wyoming was down by two rigs and North Dakota was down by three.

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

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with six active rigs, compared to five a year ago.

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

- Petroleum News