US drilling rig count up by 1 to 935

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

On Aug. 16 the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. was up by one from the previous week to 935, Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes said, but down 122 from 1,057 active rigs a year ago.

In its weekly rig count, the company reported that 770 rigs targeted oil (up six from the previous week; down 99 from a year ago) and 165 targeted natural gas (down four from the previous week; down 21 from a year ago). There were no miscellaneous rigs active (down one from the previous week; down two from a year ago).

The company said 68 of the U.S. holes were directional, 815 were horizontal and 52 were vertical.

Pennsylvania was up by four rigs from the previous week; Louisiana was up by three

Alaska and New Mexico were each up by two rigs.

North Dakota and Wyoming were each up by one rig.

The rig count in California, Colorado and Utah was unchanged from the previous week.

Oklahoma was down by a single rig; Ohio was down by three rigs.

Texas, which at 450 has the most active rigs in the country, was down four rigs from the previous week, as was West Virginia.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with 10 rigs active for the week ending Aug. 16, up from six a year ago.

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

- KRISTEN NELSON