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US rig count drops to 284, another new low
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Baker Hughes’ weekly count of rotary rigs drilling in the U.S. has dropped below 300, hitting a new low of 284 for the week ending June 5, down 17 from the previous week and down 691 from a year ago.
Prior to this year, the low count by the Houston oilfield services company, which has issued the count since 1944, was 404 rigs in May 2016.
New low records have now been set for five weeks in a row: 374 rigs on May 8 of this year, 339 rigs on May 15; 318 on May 22; 301 on May 29; and this week’s new low of 284.
The count has been dropping steadily: down by 17, 17, 21, 35, 34, 64, 73, 62, 64, 44 and 20 rigs respectively, a total of 451, over the previous 11 weeks.
The company said 206 rigs targeted oil, down 16 from the previous week and down 583 from a year ago, while 76 targeted gas, down one from the previous week and down 110 from a year ago. There were two miscellaneous rigs active, unchanged from the previous week and up by two from a year ago.
Twenty-four of the holes were directional, 253 were horizontal and seven were vertical.
Alaska count unchanged Rig counts were unchanged from the previous week for Alaska (3), California (4), Colorado (6), North Dakota (12), Ohio (9), Pennsylvania (20) and West Virginia (8).
The rig count in Texas, which at 115 has the most active rigs in the country, was down by 12 from the previous week and down by 358 from a year ago.
New Mexico (58) was down by three rigs from the previous week.
Louisiana (34), Oklahoma (11) and Wyoming (1) were each down by one rig.
Baker Hughes shows Alaska with three active rigs for the week ending June 5, down by three from a year ago.
The largest rig count drop by basin was in the Eagle Ford (13), which was down by nine rigs. The Permian, which has the most active rigs at 141, was down seven from the previous week and down 305 from 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 301 is a new low, surpassing lows set in the previous three weeks. Prior to that the previous low was 404 rigs in May 2016.
International count On June 5 Baker Hughes released its international rig count. The count, excluding North America, was 805 for May,
down 110 from 915 in April, and down 321 from 1,126 in May 2019.
The international offshore rig count (a portion of the international count) for May was 195, down 33 from 228 in April and down 45 from 240 in May 2019.
Baker Hughes said the U.S. rig count averaged 348 in May, down 218 from 566 in April and down 635 from 986 in May 2019.
The worldwide rig count for May - international and North America combined - was 1,176, down 338 from 1,514 in April and down 1,006 from 2,182 in May 2019.
The drop in the North America rig count for May was 228, compared to the drop of 110 rigs in the international count, and accounted for 67% of the total worldwide drop of 338. North American rigs active in May accounted for 32% of active rigs worldwide.
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