|
US rig count drop slows, only down by two
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Baker Hughes’ weekly U.S. oil and gas drilling rig count, released July 2 prior to the Fourth of July holiday, shows a continuing slowing in the drop, down by only two rigs from the previous week to 263 from 265, although down 700 from a year ago. The previous week, ending June 26, the count was down by just a single rig.
Each week in the last nine has set a new record for low numbers of 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; and 263 for the current week.
But the count has dropped steadily for the last 15 weeks: down by two, one, 13, five, 17, 17, 21, 35, 34, 64, 73, 62, 64, 44 and 20 rigs respectively, a total of 472.
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.
The company said 185 rigs targeted oil, down three from the previous week and down 603 from a year ago, while 76 targeted gas, up by one from the previous week and down 98 from a year ago. There were two miscellaneous rigs active, unchanged from the previous week and up by one from a year ago.
Twenty of the holes were directional, 226 were horizontal and 17 were vertical.
Alaska count unchanged West Virginia (6) and Wyoming (1) were each up by one rig from the previous week.
Rig counts were unchanged for Alaska (3), California (4), Colorado (5), North Dakota (10), Oklahoma (10), Pennsylvania (22) and Texas (112).
Louisiana (31) and Ohio (8) were each down by one rig from the previous week; New Mexico (48) was down by two rigs.
Baker Hughes shows Alaska with three active rigs July 2, down by six from a year ago.
The rig count in the nation’s most active basin, the Permian (126), was down by five rigs from the previous week, and down by 317 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. This week’s count of 263 is a new low, surpassing lows set in the previous eight weeks. Prior to that the previous low was 404 rigs in May 2016.
International count down Baker Hughes released its monthly worldwide rig count July 2.
The international count, which excludes North America, averaged 781 rigs in June (587 land and 194 offshore rigs), down 24 from 805 in May and down from 1,138 in June 2019.
The U.S. rig count averaged 274 in June (262 land and 12 offshore rigs), down 74 from a May average of 348 and down from a June 2019 average of 969. The Canadian rig count averaged 18 in June (16 land and two offshore), down five from a May average of 23 and down from a June 2019 average of 114.
Worldwide, international and North America, the June rig count averaged 1,073, down 103 from a May average of 1,176 and down from a June 2019 average of 2,221.
| 