Texas flooding sinks US rig count to 10-week low

July 26, 2002
Flood waters that closed some Texas roadways helped sink US drilling activity to the lowest level in 10 weeks, down 26 rotary rigs to 833 units working this week.

Sam Fletcher
OGJ Senior Writer

HOUSTON, July 26 -- Flood waters that closed some Texas roadways helped sink US drilling activity to the lowest level in 10 weeks, down 26 rotary rigs to 833 units working this week, compared with 1,266 during the same period a year ago, officials at Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.

Land operations accounted for the bulk of the loss, down 23 rigs with 702 units active. Offshore drilling was down 3 rigs to 107 in the Gulf of Mexico and down 4 to 111 for the US as a whole. The number of rigs working inland waters increased by 1 to 20.

Extensive flooding in central and south Texas apparently accounted for some of the loss. Texas's rig count was down 13 to 322 this week.

The decline was split almost evenly between oil and natural gas drilling, with the number of rigs drilling for oil down 13 to 119, and the number drilling for gas down 12 to 713. One rig was unclassified. Directional drilling also decreased, down 13 units to 233. But the number involved in horizontal drilling increased to 60, up by 1.

Among the other major producing states, Oklahoma was down 3 rigs to 105, and Wyoming was down 2 to 43. Rig counts in California and Alaska were down 1 rig each to 22 and 8, respectively. Louisiana and New Mexico were unchanged, with respective rig counts of 158 and 45.

Canada had 264 rotary rigs working this week, 2 less than the previous week and down from 287 during the same period last year.

ODS-Petrodata Services in Houston reported 4 fewer mobile offshore rigs under contract in the Gulf of Mexico this week, while the available rig fleet decreased by 1. That dropped the utilization rate in those waters to 67.9% with 133 rigs contracted out of the 196 available for work.

However, activity in European waters increased for the second consecutive week, with 2 more rigs under contract and another unit added to that fleet. That boosted utilization to 83.8% with 88 mobile offshore rigs contracted out of the 105 available.

Worldwide, there was a net decrease of 2 contracted rigs and the addition of 1 newbuild jack up unit to the global fleet. Utilization among mobile offshore rigs dipped to 81% with 125 under contract out of 532 total.

Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]