US drilling rig count at 792 is down by 1

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes reports the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. the week ending March 13 was down by one from the previous week to 792 and down by 234 from 1,026 a year ago.

In its weekly rig count the Houston oilfield services company said 683 rigs targeted oil, up one from the previous week but down by 150 from a year ago, while 107 targeted natural gas, down by two from the previous week and down 86 from a year ago. There were two miscellaneous rigs active, unchanged from the previous week and up by two from a year ago.

The company said 48 of the holes were directional, 713 were horizontal and 31 were vertical.

The rig count in Texas, the state with the most active rigs at 408, was up by four from the previous week.

West Virginia was up by two rigs and New Mexico was up by one.

Rig counts were unchanged from the previous week in Alaska, California, Colorado, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Utah.

Wyoming was down by one rig from the previous week, Ohio was down by two and Louisiana was down by five.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with 10 rigs active for the week ending March 13, unchanged from a year ago.

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

- KRISTEN NELSON