By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Nov. 2 -- The utilization rate among mobile offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico tumbled to a 9-year low as six more units came off contracts this week with no new jobs, said ODS-Petrodata Group officials Friday in Houston.
The utilization rate was down nearly three points to 58.7%, the lowest level since September 1992, with 122 rigs now under contract in gulf waters out of an available fleet of 208.
Officials at Baker Hughes Inc., Houston, reported total US drilling activity continued to dwindle, with 1,058 rotary rigs working this week. That's 5 fewer than the previous week and down 20 from the same period a year ago.
The number of land rigs still working totaled 903, down 3 from last week. There were 19 marine rigs drilling US inland waters, a decrease of 4.
However, Baker Hughes officials counted 136 offshore rigs actually drilling in US waters this week, 2 more than last week.
The number of US rigs drilling for natural gas this week was down 2 to 874. The number drilling for oil declined by 3 to 184. There were 266 rigs engaged in directional drilling, down 4. But the number doing horizontal drilling this week increased by 5 to 78.
Oklahoma led the week's decline, down 9 rigs to 91. New Mexico lost 5 rigs to 54, and Louisiana was down 4 to 189. Texas had 434 rotary rigs working this week, up four from the previous week. Wyoming's rig count increased by 3 to 57. California had 5 more rigs working this week for a total of 36.
Meanwhile, ODS-Petrodata said offshore activity in European waters was unchanged for the seventh consecutive week, where 98 mobile rigs were under contract out of 103 total for 95.1% utilization.
ODS-Petrodata also said global utilization among offshore rigs was down nearly a full point to 80.8% this week, with 527 units contracted out of a total fleet of 652.