Big drop in US drilling rigs, down by 19

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

On Aug. 23 the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. took a big drop, down by 19 to 916 from the previous week’s count of 936, Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes said in its weekly rig count.

That total was down 128 from 1,044 active rigs a year ago.

The company reported that 754 rigs targeted oil (down 16 from the previous week; down 106 from a year ago) and 162 targeted natural gas (down three from the previous week; down 20 from a year ago). There were no miscellaneous rigs active.

The company said 69 of the U.S. holes were directional, 797 were horizontal and 50 were vertical.

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

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

Louisiana was down one rig; Alaska and New Mexico were each down two rigs; and Oklahoma was down by three rigs.

Colorado and Texas, which at 446 has the most active rigs, were each down by four rigs.

Pennsylvania was down by six rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with eight rigs active for the week ending Aug. 23, 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