US rig count drop continues, down 3 to 803

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 Nov. 22, down three to 803, following drops of 11, five, eight and 21 over the previous four weeks.

In its weekly rig count the Houston oilfield services company said the active rig count was down 276 from 1,079 active rigs a year ago.

The company reported that 671 rigs targeted oil (down three from the previous week; down 214 from a year ago) and 129 targeted natural gas (unchanged 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 54 of the U.S. holes were directional, 699 were horizontal and 50 were vertical.

Louisiana was up two rigs from the previous week and Colorado was up by one.

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

New Mexico, North Dakota and Pennsylvania were each down by one rig from the previous week.

Texas, with the largest number of active rigs in the country at 406, was down by two from the previous week.

Alaska was down by three rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with five rigs active for the week ending Nov. 22, unchanged from a year ago.

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

- KRISTEN NELSON