US drilling rig count down by 6 to 969

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. was down by six the week ending June 14 to 969.

A year ago, the count was 1,059 active rigs.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that 788 rigs targeted oil (down one from the previous week) and 181 targeted natural gas (down five).

The company said 68 of the U.S. holes were directional, 852 were horizontal and 49 were vertical.

Louisiana was up by two rigs from the previous week.

The rig counts for a number of states were unchanged from the previous week: California, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia.

Alaska and Wyoming were each down by one rig.

Texas, with the largest number of active rigs in the country, 467, was down by six rigs from the previous week.

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

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

In figures published June 7, Baker Hughes said the average U.S. rig count for May was 986, down 26 from an average of 1,012 in April, and down 60 from 1,046 rigs counted in May 2018.

The international rig count, excluding the U.S. and Canada, averaged 1,126 in May (886 land and 240 offshore rigs), up 64 from an April average of 1,062 and up 159 from the May 2018 average of 967.

- KRISTEN NELSON