US oil and gas drilling activity this week fell by 8 units to 1,989 total rigs working. The rig count for the week ended Feb. 10 was up by 268 rigs from the comparable period a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.
Land drilling operations were down 6 units this week to 1,932 rigs working. There were 40 rigs drilling offshore, a decline of 2 rigs from the previous week. All of these were drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Rigs drilling in inland waters totaled 17, unchanged from last week.
Of the US rigs working, rigs drilling for oil made an 18-unit jump from a week ago to reach 1,263 rigs. Rigs drilling for gas for the week ended Feb. 10 lost 25 rigs to reach 720 units. There were 6 rotary rigs unclassified, down 1 unit from the previous week.
Baker Hughes reported 215 rigs doing directional drilling, down 2 units. Horizontal drilling decreased by 3 rigs to a total of 1,171 working.
Texas had the biggest loss this week, down 5 units to 909 rigs working. Pennsylvania and Arkansas were down 3 rigs each to respective counts of 111 and 31.
California, at 43, Colorado, at 71, and Wyoming, at 48, were each down 1 rig from a week ago.
New Mexico gained 3 rigs to reach 84 units working while Oklahoma gained 2 rigs to reach 207 units .
Alaska, at 9, Louisiana, at 136, North Dakota, at 184, and West Virginia, at 28, each gained one rig this week.
Canada’s rig count declined by 1 unit from a week ago, reaching 709. This is up 79 units from the same period a year ago.