By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, July 20 -- Total US drilling declined slightly this week, with the utilization rate dipping among the mobile offshore rigs available in the Gulf of Mexico, industry analysts said Friday.
There were 1,278 rotary rings working in the US and its waters this week, said officials at Baker Hughes Inc. That's 15 less than the previous week but still up from 950 during the same period a year ago.
Of those rigs working this week, 1,058 were drilling for natural gas; 218 for oil; and two were unclassified.
Oklahoma led the decline, down nine rigs to a total of 151 for the week. Louisiana was close behind, losing seven rigs to 227. The Texas rig count was down five to 508, while California lost three rigs to 44. New Mexico had 83 rotary rigs working, one less than the previous week; and Wyoming was unchanged at 64.
The only major oil producing state for which Baker Hughes reported increased activity this week was Alaska, up three rigs to a total of 14 drilling.
Canada had 343 rotary rigs working this week, up from 338 the previous week and 306 a year ago.
Two mobile offshore rigs came off of contracts in the gulf with no new jobs, said officials at ODS-Petrodata Group, Houston. That pushed down the utilization rate nearly a full point to 84%, with 178 units under contract out of the 212 available in those waters.
Utilization in European waters was unchanged at 96.1%, with 98 rigs contracted out of 102 available there. There also was no change in global utilization, which remained at 88% with 652 mobile offshore rigs contracted out of a total fleet of 652.