US drilling rig count drops by 10 to 1,016

Petroleum News

The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by 10 the week ending March 22 to 1,016.

A year ago the count was 995 active rigs.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that 824 rigs targeted oil (down nine from the previous week) and 192 targeted natural gas (down one).

The company said 63 of the U.S. holes were directional, 900 were horizontal and 53 were vertical.

Among major oil and gas producing states, North Dakota and Pennsylvania were each up by one rig.

California, Colorado and Wyoming were unchanged.

Alaska was down by one rig.

New Mexico and Oklahoma were each down by two rigs.

Louisiana was down by three rigs.

Texas, the most active state with 497 rigs, was down four from the previous week.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with nine active rigs, the same count as a year ago.

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

- Petroleum News