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US rotary rig count jumps up by 13 to 282
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Baker Hughes U.S. rotary rig count was at 282 for the week ending Oct. 16, up by 13 from 269 the previous week - the largest increase the count has seen since it turned around in mid-August from a low for the year. The count is still down substantially from a year ago, by 569 from 851.
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 205 rigs targeting oil, up 12 from the previous week and down 508 from a year ago, 74 rigs targeting gas, up one from the previous week and down 63 from a year ago and three miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from the previous week and up two from a year ago.
Twenty-one of the holes were directional, 240 were horizontal and 21 were vertical.
Alaska count unchanged The rig count for Texas (123), which has the most active rigs in the country, was up by seven from the previous week, but down 300 from a year ago.
Utah (3) was up by three rigs from the previous week, when it had no active rigs. Oklahoma (14) and Wyoming (3) were each up by two rigs. North Dakota (11) and West Virginia (8) were each up by one rig.
Colorado (4) was down by one rig from the previous week; Louisiana (38) was down by two rigs.
Rig counts were unchanged in the remaining states: Alaska (2), California (4), New Mexico (45), Ohio (6) and Pennsylvania (18).
Baker Hughes shows Alaska with two active rigs Oct. 17, unchanged from the previous week and down by six from a year ago.
The rig count in the Permian, the most active basin in the country, was unchanged from the previous week at 130, but down 292 from a count of 422 a year ago.
- KRISTEN NELSON
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