By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 22 -- US drilling activity declined again this week, down by 14 rotary rigs with 1,082 still working, officials at Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday. The current rig count is up from 838 during the same time a year ago.
Last week the US rig count rebounded by 22 rigs from a loss of 23 the previous week. And again this week, most of the movement was on the land side, down 13 rigs to 959 drilling. Offshore drilling activity declined by 1 rig to 108 in the Gulf of Mexico and 110 for the US as a whole. Operations in inland waters were unchanged with 13 rigs working.
Canada's rig count also decreased, down 9 to 396 this week but up from 242 last year.
In the US, drilling for natural gas decreased by 5 rigs to 928 this week, while those drilling for oil were down by 9 to 149. Five rigs were unclassified. Directional drilling dropped 6 rigs to 281, but horizontal drilling increased by 3 units to 105.
Louisiana led this week's decline, down 5 rigs with 153 still working. Oklahoma lost 4 rigs to 133. Wyoming was down by 3 to 60. Alaska's rig count fell by 2 to 5, and California was down 1 to 24. On the other hand, Texas added 4 rigs for a total of 483 working. New Mexico's rig count increased by 1 to 65.
In the Gulf of Mexico, the total number of mobile offshore rigs available for work and the number under contract increased by 1 each to 172 and 129, respectively, with a newbuild jack up rig joining that fleet, said officials Friday at ODS-Petrodata, Houston. As a result, the rig utilization rate in those waters inched up to 75.1%.
The number of contracted rigs in European waters also increased by 1 this week, for a total of 83. The fleet size was unchanged at 100 units for an utilization rate of 83%. ODS-Petrodata reported a net increase of 3 mobile offshore rigs under contract to 532 worldwide this week, while the total rig fleet increased by 1 to 654 for a global utilization rate of 81.3%. "Worldwide offshore rig demand has risen by 12 rigs over the last 5 weeks," company officials said.