US drilling rig count, at 851, down by 5

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes reports the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. was down by five the week ending Oct. 18 to 851, following an uptick of one rig the previous week.

In its weekly rig count the Houston oilfield services company said the active rig count was down 216 from 1,067 active rigs a year ago.

The company reported that 713 rigs targeted oil (up one from the previous week; down 160 from a year ago) and 137 targeted natural gas (down six from the previous week; down 57 from a year ago). There was one miscellaneous rig active (unchanged from the previous week and also unchanged from a year ago).

The company said 55 of the U.S. holes were directional, 745 were horizontal and 51 were vertical.

Texas, with the largest number of active rigs in the country, 423, was up by three from the previous week.

Wyoming and Ohio were each up by one rig.

The number of rigs active in Alaska, California, Colorado, North Dakota and Utah was unchanged from the previous week.

New Mexico and West Virginia were each down by one rig.

Louisiana and Oklahoma were each down by two rigs; Pennsylvania was down four.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with eight rigs active for the week ending Oct. 18, up from three a year ago.

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

- KRISTEN NELSON