By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 22 -- US drilling activity showed little change with a net gain of only 1 rotary rig to 1,697 drilling, up from 1,491 a year ago, said Baker Hughes Inc.
Surprisingly, all of the growth this week was in inland waters drilling, with the addition of 3 rigs for 25 working. Land operations lost 1 rig, leaving 1,587 still working. Offshore drilling declined by 1 rig to 81 in the Gulf of Mexico and 85 in US waters as a whole.
New Mexico was the hot spot for new drilling activity, increasing by 9 rigs—the same gain as the previous week—to 101 working. Colorado gained 4 rigs, with 87 drilling. Oklahoma and Wyoming increased by 3 rigs each to 181 and 94, respectively. Louisiana was up by 2 to 195. California gained 1 to 36, and Alaska was unchanged with 6 rigs drilling. Texas posted the only loss among the major producing states, down 4 rigs to 767.
Canada's weekly rig count inched up by 1 to 453 units drilling. That was down from 631 during the same period last year, however.
