By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Mar. 7 -- US drilling activity increased by 17 rotary rigs to 929 working this week, up sharply from 769 during the same period a year ago, executives at Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.
This week's increase was primarily among land operations, up 19 with 807 units working. The number of rigs drilling offshore was up by 1 to 101 in the Gulf of Mexico and 106 for the US as a whole. Activity in inland waters dropped by 3 to 16 rigs making hole.
Seasonal thawing conditions dropped the Canadian rig count by 37 to 521 this week, up from 339 a year ago.
In the US, the number of rigs drilling for natural gas was up by 9 to756. Oil drilling registered almost as many additions, however, up 9 to 169 rotary rigs working. There were 4 rigs unclassified this week. US directional drilling was down 2 units with 236 still working; horizontal drilling increased by 3 to 61.
Texas had the biggest gain, up 11 rigs with 414 working this week. New Mexico's rig count jumped by 5 units to 64. Louisiana and Alaska added 1 rig each for totals of 150 and 12, respectively. Wyoming was unchanged with 41 rotary rigs working. Oklahoma and California were down 1 rig each to counts of 113 and 18, respectively.
The number of mobile offshore rigs under contract in the Gulf of Mexico and the total available both dipped by 1 this week, said officials at ODS-Petrodata, Houston. The fleet utilization rate slid to 61.7% with 113 rigs contracted out of the 183 available in those waters.
In European waters, the number of rigs under contract increased by 3 to 84, while the rig fleet size rose by 1 to 100, increasing the utilization rate to 84%. Worldwide, there was a net gain of 1 contracted rig to 520 out of the 658 mobile offshore rigs available for work. Total utilization among those rigs inched up to 79%.
Baker Hughes also reported Friday that 1,050 workover rigs were working in the US during February, up from 989 in January and 975 in February 2002. Canada had 501 workover rigs active last month, up from 489 in January and 354 a year ago.
In a separate report, the company said 752 rotary rigs were working outside the US and Canada during February, up 18 units from January's level of activity. These included in Europe, 83, down 1 from January; the Middle East, 219, up 9 since January; Africa, 55,
up 2; Latin America, 215, up 4; and Asia Pacific, 180, also up 4.
