By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 9 -- US drilling activity dropped this week, down by 20 rotary rigs to 1,106 working, officials at Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.
Still, that's the second largest initial rig count for a new year in the last 13 years, surpassed only in 2001 when the initial weekly count totaled 1,107. There were 851 rotary rigs working in the comparable period in 2003. Last week, the US rig count hit a 26-month high of 1,126 rotary units, Baker Hughes reported Dec. 31, ahead of the New Year's holiday.
Land operations led this week's decline, down by 20 rigs to 983 working. Offshore operations declined by 3 rigs to 98 in the Gulf of Mexico and 101 in US waters as a whole. That was partly offset by an increase of 3 units in inland waters to 22.
In Canada, the number of rotary rigs working jumped by 156 to 488, up from 444 during the same period last year.
Among US rigs, the number drilling for natural gas declined by 9 to 957. Those drilling for oil were down by 11 to 147. There were 2 rigs unclassified. Directional and horizontal drilling operations were down by 6 rigs each to 277 and 92, respectively.
The Texas rig count plummeted by 29 units to 449 working this week. New Mexico declined by 3 rigs to 72. Alaska was down by 2 to 10 and California lost 1 to 25. Louisiana and Oklahoma registered increases of 4 rigs each to 162 and 149, respectively. Wyoming increased by 2 to 68 rotary rigs working.
Meanwhile, the number of mobile offshore rigs under contract in the US Gulf of Mexico declined by 1 to 118 this week while the rig fleet size increased by 1 to 163. That caused the utilization rate among mobile offshore rigs to dip to 72.4% in those waters, said officials Friday at ODS-Petrodata Consulting & Research, Houston.
In European waters, rig utilization remained unchanged at 78.6% for the third consecutive week, with 77 mobile offshore rigs under contract out of a fleet of 98. Worldwide, utilization remained at 80.2% with 526 units contracted out of a total fleet of 656 mobile offshore rigs.
Baker Hughes also reported Friday that international drilling activity averaged 803 rotary rigs working during December, 23 more than in November and up from 753 in December 2002.
Company officials reported 1,162 active workover rigs in the US during December, down from 1,179 during November but up from 1,029 in December 2002. The number of active workover rigs in Canada declined to 304 last month, down from 358 in November and from 337 in December 2002.
