US drilling rig count drops by 8 to 934

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

On Aug. 9 the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. was down eight from the previous week to 934, Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes said, and down 123 from 1,057 active rigs a year ago.

In its weekly rig count, the company reported that 764 rigs targeted oil (down six from the previous week) and 169 targeted natural gas (down two). One miscellaneous rig was active (unchanged).

The company said 65 of the U.S. holes were directional, 817 were horizontal and 52 were vertical.

New Mexico was up two rigs from the previous week.

The rig count in most states was unchanged from the previous week, including California, Colorado, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Texas, which at 454 has the most active rigs in the country, was down one rig from the previous week.

Louisiana and Oklahoma were each down two rigs from the previous week; Alaska was down four.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with eight rigs active for the week ending Aug. 8, up from seven a year ago.

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

Baker Hughes reported its July international rig count on Aug. 7. The company said the international rig count (excluding the U.S.) was 1,162, up 24 from 1,138 counted in June and up 165 from 997 in July 2018. The international offshore rig count was 255 for July, up nine from 246 in June and down 83 from 204 in July 2018.

The worldwide rig count (including the U.S.) for July was 2,238, up 17 from 2,221 in June and down 13 from 2,251 in July 2018.

Baker Hughes shows the U.S. rig count for July at 955, down 14 from June, and down 95 from July 2018.

- KRISTEN NELSON