US drilling rig count down by 1 to 1,026

Petroleum News

The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by one the week ending March 15 to 1,026.

A year ago the count was 990 active rigs.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that 833 rigs targeted oil (down one from the previous week) and 193 targeted natural gas (unchanged).

The company said 65 of the U.S. holes were directional, 907 were horizontal and 54 were vertical.

Among major oil and gas producing states, Alaska and North Dakota were each up by three rigs; New Mexico was up by one.

California, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wyoming were unchanged.

Louisiana and Texas, the most active state with 501 rigs, were each down one from the previous week.

Oklahoma was down by five rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with 10 active rigs, compared to seven rigs a year ago.

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

- Petroleum News