By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 10 -- After bouncing back and forth at 1,091-1,095 units for the past 5 weeks, the US rig count jumped to 1,109 this week, the highest level since the same period in 2001 when there were 1,141 rotary rigs working, officials at Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.
That's up from 1,091 last week and 849 a year ago. All of the gain was in land operations, which jumped by 25 to 988 rigs drilling. The number of units working inland waters fell by 5 to 15, while offshore drilling was down by 2 rigs to 102 in the Gulf of Mexico and 106 in US waters as a whole.
In Canada, the number of rotary rigs turning to the right increased by 22 to 418 this week, compared with 210 at this time last year.
All of the US gain this week was in drilling for gas, up by 18 rigs to 950. The number drilling for oil was unchanged at 155, and 4 were unclassified. Directional drilling fell by 16 to 273, but horizontal drilling increased by 1 rig to 89.
Texas was the biggest gainer among the major producing states, up by 15 units with 468 rotary rigs working this month. New Mexico was next, with a gain of 6 to 68. California's rig count increased by 2 to 27, and Alaska was up by 1 to 10. Oklahoma's rig count was unchanged at 139. Wyoming was down 1 to 70, and Louisiana dropped 5 rigs, with 159 working.
The number of mobile offshore rigs under contract in the US sector of the Gulf of Mexico continued to decline, down by 1 to 119 this week of the 171 units available for work. That followed 5 rigs coming off contracts last week. The utilization rate among mobile rigs in those waters is now down to 69.6%.
In European waters, however, the number of contracted rigs increased by 2 to 81 out of an available fleet of 99. That raised the utilization rate to 81.8% in those waters. Worldwide, the number of mobile offshore rigs under contract was unchanged at 521 out of a total fleet of 654, for a global utilization rate of 79.7%.