US drilling rig count, at 856, up by one

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes reports the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. was up by one the week ending Oct. 11 to 856, following four weeks of declining numbers.

In its weekly rig count the Houston oilfield services company said the active rig count was down 207 from 1,063 active rigs a year ago.

The company reported that 712 rigs targeted oil (up two from the previous week; down 157 from a year ago) and 143 targeted natural gas (down one from the previous week; down 50 from a year ago). There was one miscellaneous rig active (unchanged from the previous week; unchanged from a year ago).

The company said 55 of the U.S. holes were directional, 750 were horizontal and 51 were vertical.

Texas, with the largest active rig count in the country at 420, was up six from the previous week.

West Virginia was up by three rigs from the previous week; Louisiana was up by two.

The rig counts for California, Colorado, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming were unchanged from the previous week.

Alaska, New Mexico, Ohio and Oklahoma were each down by one rig.

Pennsylvania was down by four rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with eight rigs active for the week ending Oct. 11, up from five a year ago.

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

- KRISTEN NELSON