By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 13 -- US drilling activity increased this week with 863 rotary rigs working, up 12 from the previous week for the largest rig count since Jan. 18 and the third largest weekly tally this year, officials at Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. said.
During the same period a year ago, there were 1,202 rotary rigs working in the US and its waters, trending down from a high of 1,293 during the week ended July 12, 2001.
Land activity accounted for most of this week's increase, up 7 rigs to 728. Offshore drilling increased by 5 rotary rigs to 114 in the Gulf of Mexico and 116 for the US as a whole. Operations in inland waters were unchanged with 19 rotary rigs active.
Canada's rig count declined by 17 to 114 this week, down from 135 a year ago.
Natural gas drilling led the increases in the US, with the rig count up 13 rigs to 746 this week. The number of US rigs drilling for oil was down 1 to 115. Two rigs were unclassified. Directional drilling increased by 10 units to 241 rigs, while horizontal drilling was unchanged at 58.
Texas led this week's increase, up 6 to 352 rigs drilling. Wyoming added 5 rigs for a total of 44 active in that state. Louisiana's rig count was up 4 to 182, and California's was unchanged at 20. Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Alaska were down 1 rig each to 95, 36, and 9 respectively.
ODS-Petrodata Group in Houston said the number of mobile offshore drilling rigs contracted for work in the Gulf of Mexico decreased by 4 to 127 this week, while the total available rig fleet was down 1 unit to 195. That dropped the fleet utilization rate to 65.1% in those waters.
Demand for offshore rigs in European waters was unchanged this week, however, with 87 units contracted out of the 104 available, for 83.7% utilization. Worldwide, the number of contracted rigs was down by 4 to 529 out of a fleet of 658 for 80.4% utilization of the total mobile offshore rig fleet.
