By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 2 -- US drilling activity continued to increase for the third consecutive week, up by 11 units to 928 rotary rigs working, said Baker Hughes Inc.
A year ago this week, there were 1,921 rigs drilling. The last time the Baker Hughes rig count registered gains over 3 straight weeks was in the period of Aug. 18-Sept. 5, 2008.
Land accounted for the latest gain, up by 11 rigs to 878 working this week. Offshore drilling declined by 1 rig to 42 units in the Gulf of Mexico. Inland waters activity increased by 1 rig to 8 working.
Rigs drilling for natural gas increased by 1 to 688. Drilling for oil increased by 10 rigs to 229. There were 11 rigs unclassified. Directional drilling dropped by 10 units to 161. Horizontal drilling increased by 6 to 396.
Among major producing states, Oklahoma and North Dakota increased by 3 rigs each to 82 and 40, respectively. Colorado and New Mexico were up 2 rigs each to 45 and 40. Wyoming and California each gained 1 rig to respective counts of 31 and 23. Unchanged were Texas, 338; Arkansas, 44; and Alaska, 6. Louisiana lost 1 rig with 134 still drilling.
In other states of interest, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Utah were all unchanged at respective counts of 43, 20, and 16.