By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Jan. 18 -- US drilling activity increased slightly with 869 rotary rigs working this week, said officials at Baker Hughes Inc., Houston.
That's 13 more than last week, but still down sharply from the 1,128 that were drilling during the same period a year ago.
Land operations accounted for most of that gain, up 9 rigs to 721 making hole. The number of rigs drilling in the Gulf of Mexico also increased by 6 to 122, raising the total number of rigs working off US coasts to 129. Rigs working inland waters were down 2 to 19 this week.
There were 722 US rigs drilling for natural gas this week, up 3 from last week. The number drilling for oil increased by 10 to 146, while 1 remained unclassified. Among the rigs working this week, 232 were doing directional drilling, up 4 from last week. Another 65 were drilling horizontal wells, 1 fewer than previously.
Texas accounted for the increase with 380 rigs working, up 23 from a week ago. Wyoming's rig count also was up 3 to 48, while Oklahoma remained unchanged at 71.
Rig counts in the other 4 major producing states were down 1 each to 167 in Louisiana, 41 in New Mexico, 26 in California, and 15 in Alaska.
ODS-Petrodata Group, Houston, reported one additional mobile offshore rig under contract in the Gulf of Mexico this week. That boosted rig utilization in those waters by half a point to 61%, with 122 rigs contracted out of 200 available.
However, utilization of the European offshore rig fleet slipped slightly to 91.3%, with a decrease of 1 rig in the fleet size to 104 units and a corresponding decrease of 1 rig among the 95 still under contract.
Worldwide, the number of mobile offshore rigs under contract was down 1 to 530 out of a total fleet of 655 units. Global utilization of mobile offshore rigs dipped to 80.9%.