US drilling rig count down by 62 to 602

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes reports the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. April 9 was 602, down by 62 rigs from the previous week, and down by 420 rigs from 1,022 a year ago. The count has declined steeply in recent weeks, dropping by 64, 44 and 20 in each of the previous three weeks.

In its weekly rig count the Houston oilfield services company said 504 rigs targeted oil, down 58 from the previous week and down by 329 from a year ago, while 96 targeted natural gas, down four from the previous week and down 93 from a year ago. There were two miscellaneous rigs active, unchanged from the previous week and up by two from a year ago.

The company said 35 of the holes were directional, 545 were horizontal and 22 were vertical.

There were no states with an increase in drilling rigs from the previous week.

Rig counts were unchanged in Ohio (9) and Pennsylvania (24).

The rig count in Texas, the state with the most active rigs at 302, was down by 36 from the previous week, and down by 200 from a year ago.

New Mexico (93) was down by seven rigs; Wyoming (10) was down by four; and Oklahoma (26) was down by three.

Alaska (6), California (8), Colorado (16) and Utah (6) were each down by two rigs from the previous week.

Louisiana (43), North Dakota (41) and West Virginia (14) were each down by one rig from the previous week.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with six active rigs, down two from a year ago, although both BP and ConocoPhillips are demobilizing their rig fleets on the North Slope, which will likely be fully reflected in next week’s Baker Hughes count.

The largest rig count drop by basin was the Permian, which also has the most active rigs at 316. The count in that basin was down 35 from the previous week and down 148 from a year ago.

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

- KRISTEN NELSON