US weekly rig count holding steady at 251

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Baker Hughes U.S. rig count for July 31 shows the number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the U.S. holding steady at 251, the same as the count for the week ending July 24, although down 691 from 942 a year ago.

The number of rigs drilling for oil, 180, was down by one from the previous week and down by 590 from 770 a year ago; the number of rigs targeting natural gas was up by one to 69 from a week ago and down by 102 from 171 a year ago; two rigs were listed as miscellaneous, unchanged from the previous week and up by one from a year ago.

Prior to this week, each week in the previous 12 set a new low record for the number of active rigs: 374 rigs on May 8 of this year; 339 rigs on May 15; 318 on May 22; 301 on May 29; 284 on June 5; 279 on June 12; 266 on June 19; 265 on June 26; 263 on July 2; 258 on July 10; 253 on July 17; and 251 on July 24.

The Houston oilfield services company has issued a weekly rig count since 1944. Prior to this year, the low was 404 rigs in May 2016.

Twenty-two of the holes were directional, 216 were horizontal and 13 were vertical.

Alaska count unchanged

Rig counts were unchanged for Alaska (3), California (4), Colorado (5), Ohio (6), Oklahoma (10), Pennsylvania (20), West Virginia (5) and Wyoming (1).

Louisiana (29) was down by one rig from the previous week and New Mexico (49) was down by two rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with three active rigs July 31, unchanged from the previous week and down by nine from a year ago.

The rig count in the nation’s most active basin, the Permian (124), was down by two rigs from the previous week, and down by 318 from a count of 443 a year ago.

Baker Hughes has issued weekly rig counts for the U.S. and Canada since 1944 and began issuing international rig counts in 1975.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. The count for this week and last, 251, is a new low. Prior to that the previous low was 404 rigs in May 2016.