By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 5 -- Total US drilling activity fell this week from a near 2-year high, while demand for mobile offshore rigs also declined in the Gulf of Mexico, industry officials said Friday.
Baker Hughes Inc. reported 1,091 rotary rigs working this week in the US and its waters, down from 1,102 the previous week, which was the largest weekly rig count since early October 2001 (OGJ Online, Aug. 29, 2003). At this time a year ago, there were 851 rotary rigs working in the US.
Land operations accounted for the bulk of this week's decline, down by 14 units with 965 rigs working. Offshore drilling also decreased by 1 rig to 107 in the Gulf of Mexico and 110 for the US as a whole. However, activity in inland waters increased by 4 rigs to a total of 16.
Meanwhile, Canada dropped 40 rigs to 367 this week, up from 258 last year.
In the US, drilling for natural gas declined by 7 rigs to 937, while oil drilling was down by 2 to 152. There were 2 rigs unclassified. Directional drilling decreased by 8 rigs to 274, and horizontal drilling lost 10 to 92.
Rain-soaked Texas led this week's decline, down by 10 rigs to 481 working. There were 140 rigs active in Oklahoma, 5 less than last week, and Wyoming was down 4 to 62. California's rig count declined by 1 to 23, and Alaska was unchanged at 6.
Louisiana and New Mexico increased by 3 rigs each to 152 and 66 respectively.
The number of mobile offshore rigs under contract in the Gulf of Mexico declined by 3 to 129 this week out of 173 available for work, said officials Friday at ODS-Petrodata, Houston. That dropped the rig utilization rate to 74.6% in those waters. That's down from 76.3% the previous week, which was the highest utilization rate in the gulf since Aug. 17, 2001 (OGJ Online, Aug. 29, 2003).
In European waters, the number of contracted rigs increased by 1 to 82 of the 100 available, raising utilization to 82%. Worldwide, however, offshore activity remained unchanged for the third consecutive week, with 532 mobile offshore rigs contracted out of a total fleet of 654, for a global utilization rate of 81.3%.
