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US drilling rig count up by 10 to 320
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Baker Hughes U.S. rotary drilling rig count increased by 10 to 320 on Nov. 25, a count early in the week due to Thanksgiving. The count had dropped by two the week ending Nov. 20, only the second such reversal in a gradual increase that began in mid-August. The count is still down substantially from a year ago, by 482 from 802.
When the count hit 244 the week of Aug. 14, it was not just the low for 2020, but the lowest it has been since the Houston based oilfield services company began issuing a weekly U.S. rig count in 1944.
Prior to this year, the low was 404 rigs in May 2016. The count peaked at 4,530 in 1981.
At the beginning of the year the count was in the low 790s, where it remained through mid-March, when it began to fall, dropping below what had been the historic low in early May with a count of 374 and continuing to drop through the third week of August when it gained back 10 rigs.
The Nov. 25 count includes 241 rigs targeting oil, up 10 from the previous week but down 427 from a year ago, 77 rigs targeting gas, up one from the previous week but down 54 from a year ago and two miscellaneous rigs, down one from the previous week and down one from a year ago.
Twenty-two of the holes were directional, 283 were horizontal and 15 were vertical.
Alaska count unchanged There were three-rig gains recorded in three states: California (7), New Mexico (58) and Texas (147).
Colorado (5) and Louisiana (39) were each up by one rig.
Rig counts were unchanged in the remaining states: Alaska (3), North Dakota (11), Ohio (4), Oklahoma (13), Pennsylvania (20), Utah (3), West Virginia (7) and Wyoming (2).
Baker Hughes shows Alaska with three active rigs Nov. 25, unchanged from the previous week but down by four from a year ago.
The rig count in the Permian, the most active basin in the country, was up by five from the previous week at 161, but down 244 from a count of 405 a year ago.
- KRISTEN NELSON
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