US drilling activity rebounds to 1,134 working rigs

March 12, 2004
US drilling operations rebounded this week, up by 5 rotary rigs to 1,134 working, compared with 927 a year ago, officials at Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, Mar. 12 -- US drilling operations rebounded this week, up by 5 rotary rigs to 1,134 working, compared with 927 a year ago, officials at Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.

All of the growth was in land operations, where 1,022 rotary rigs were working this week, 11 more than the previous week. Operations in inland waters decreased by 3 units to 18 rigs. Offshore drilling also was down by 3 rigs, to 93 in the Gulf of Mexico and 94 in US waters as a whole.

Canada's rig count dropped by 35 rigs to 521 with the seasonal thaw. That's down from 536 rotary rigs that were working during the same period last year.

Among US rigs, the number drilling for oil increased by 8 to 169, while those drilling for natural gas declined by 3 to 961 this week, with 4 rigs unclassified. Directional drilling decreased by 4 rigs to 298; horizontal drilling increased by 7 to 98.

Texas led the rebound, up by 12 rigs to 488 working this week. New Mexico increased by 4 to 68, and California was unchanged with 19 rotary rigs drilling. Oklahoma's rig count dropped by 8 units to 151, while Louisiana was down by 4 rigs to 165. Alaska had 11 rigs working, 3 fewer than the previous week. Wyoming was down by 2 rigs, with 63 still making hole.

There were 113 mobile offshore rigs under contract in the Gulf of Mexico this week, 2 less than the previous week, said officials Friday at ODS-Petrodata Consulting & Research, Houston. The available rig fleet in the gulf also decreased by 1 to 163, dipping utilization to 69.3% in those waters.

The number of contracted rigs also declined by 2 in European waters, to 79 out of a fleet of 96. That dropped the utilization rate in that market to 82.3%. Worldwide, there was a net decline of 2 rigs to 531 under contract out of a total fleet of 654 mobile offshore rigs. The global utilization rate among those rigs dipped to 81.2%