By the OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 5 -- US drilling activity declined this week, wiping out last week's gain that was the first after 9 weeks of straight losses, officials of Baker Hughes Inc., Houston, reported Friday.
There were 738 rotary rigs drilling in the US and its waters this week, 23 fewer than last week when there was a gain of 11 units. A year ago at this time, the US rig count was at 1,200 and still climbing.
This week's losses were in the usual areas—land and natural gas drilling. There were 613 land rigs working in the US this week, 21 less than last week. The number of units drilling inland waters was up 2 to 15. But the number of rigs drilling in the US offshore sector was down 4 to 110. That included 107 working rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, down 2 from last week.
ODS-Petrodata Group, Houston, reported that the number of mobile offshore rigs available for work in the gulf decreased by 2 to 198 this week, while the number under contract increased by 1 to 122. That boosted the rig utilization rate in those waters by 1.6 points to 61.6%.
The total number of US rotary rigs drilling for natural gas was down by 18 to 591 this week. There were 145 rigs drilling for oil, a decrease of 5. Another 2 active rigs were unclassified.
The number of rigs involved in directional drilling was unchanged at 224, but horizontal drilling was down 2 rigs to 56.
New Mexico led the US decline, down 7 rigs to 30. Texas was a close second, down 5 rigs to 296. Rig counts in Oklahoma and California declined by 3 each to 77 and 20, respectively. Alaska was down 2 to 13, while Wyoming's rig count was unchanged at 35.
There were 178 rotary rigs working in Canada this week, down 73 from the previous week and far less than the 273 that were drilling during that same period in 2001.
ODS-Petrodata said the worldwide number of mobile offshore rigs under contract declined for the third consecutive week, down 4 to 517 out of a total fleet of 655. That dropped the fleet utilization rate to 78.9%. Activity in European waters was down 1 rig to 92 under contract out of 102 available, for 90.2% utilization.
Baker Hughes reported the international rotary rig count for March was up 18 units to 734. Gains included Europe, up 9 to 93; the Middle East, up 7 to 199; and Africa, up 6 to 60. Rig counts in Latin America and Asia Pacific were down 2 each to 221 and 161, respectively.
The company also reported 972 workover rigs active in the US during March, down from 975 in February and 1,193 a year ago. Canada had 324 active workover rigs in March, down from 354 in February and 413 last year.