By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Aug. 17 -- US drilling activity continued to decline, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, in the wake of sagging market prices for natural gas, industry analysts said Friday.
The utilization rate among mobile offshore rigs in the gulf dipped to 77.8% as three more units came off contracts this week, said officials at ODS-Petrodata Group, Houston. The size of the available gulf rig fleet increased by one to 212, while the number of rigs under contract dropped to 165.
That number of contracted rigs has dribbled away during 8 of the last 9 weeks, with only a brief pause last week, as producers apparently pulled back from some marginal prospects, officials said. Gulf utilization hit a 13-month low in late July.
Most of the decline has been among jack up rigs that do the bread-and-butter drilling in the gulf's gas-prone Outer Continental Shelf, said Robert Moers, who tracks offshore drilling activity for ODS-Petrodata.
Offshore drilling also declined in European waters, with 99 rigs contracted out of the 102 available, said ODS-Petrodata.
With declines in the two biggest offshore drilling markets, global utilization dipped to 86.8% with 567 rigs under contract out of the total 653 mobile offshore rigs available for work.
The total number of rotary rigs actually drilling in the US and its waters dropped to 1,242 this week, down 6 from the previous week but still up strongly from 994 that were drilling during that same period last year, said officials at Baker Hughes Inc.
Of those rigs, 1,024 were drilling for natural gas, one fewer than the previous week, and 217 were drilling for oil, down five from last week, with one rig unclassified. This week's drilling activity included 297 directional wells, 5 fewer than last week; and 82 horizontal wells, up 1.
Oklahoma's rig count registered the biggest decline, down 10 to 144. Louisiana also lost four rigs to 220.
Texas had 504 rigs making hole, 3 more than last week; New Mexico's rig count increased by 1 to 72. There were 64 rotary rigs drilling in Wyoming this week, an increase of 2.
Canada had 348 rotary rigs working this week, up 28 from the previous week and a strong increase from 290 a year ago, Baker Hughes officials reported.