US drilling activity increased this week with the addition of 15 rigs, bringing the total working rigs to 1,974. This is up from 1,651 in the comparable period a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. The count has not been this high since October 2008, when the count was 1,979.
Land rigs were up by 16 units to 1,921 working. Offshore, the number of rigs decreased by 1 to 34. Inland waters activity remained the same at 19.
Of the US rigs working, 1,066 were drilling for oil, up 11 compared with the previous week. Rigs drilling for gas topped 900, 4 more than the previous week. There were 8 rotary rigs unclassified. Directional drilling dropped by 13 units to 227 rotary rigs. Horizontal drilling increased by 15 to 1,138 units.
In some of the major producing states, Oklahoma saw the largest additions to its fleet. The Sooner State’s rig count reached 198, up 11 from the previous week. Texas, meanwhile, gained 7 rigs for a count of 893 units. Wyoming’s count was up 6 units to 49. Up just a single rig were both North Dakota and Arkansas with respective counts of 176 and 32. Colorado, 74, California, 49, West Virginia, 20, and Alaska, 6, remained unchanged this week. Down 1 rig each were Louisiana with 169 and New Mexico with 85. Pennsylvania’s count reached 111 units, down 5 from last week.
Canada’s count increased by 22 to 486 rotary rigs working, compared with 379 in the same period last year.
