US oil and gas drilling activity this week declined by 27 units to reach 1,945 total rigs working. The rig count for the week ended Apr. 27 was up by 127 rigs compared with the same period a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.
Most of this loss was in land drilling operations, which was off 26 units to 1,878 rigs working. There were 45 rigs drilling offshore—all of which in the Gulf of Mexico—which was unchanged from a week ago. Rigs drilling in inland waters totaled 22, down 1 rig from last week (OGJ Online, Apr. 20, 2012).
Rigs drilling for oil in the US decreased by 9 units from a week ago to reach 1,328. Rigs targeting gas for the week ended Apr. 27 decreased by 18 rigs to reach 613 units working. There were 4 rotary rigs unclassified, unchanged from last week.
Baker Hughes reported 243 rigs doing directional drilling, a loss of 3 units from last week. Horizontal drilling decreased by 16 rigs to a total of 1,139 units working.
Of the top producing states, North Dakota was the only state that gained this week, up 1 rig to 196 units working. West Virginia and Ohio, at 22 and 12, respectively, were unchanged from a week ago. Colorado and Wyoming were both down 1 unit to respective counts of 67 and 39. Three states were down 2 rigs each, namely New Mexico, 83; California, 43; and Alaska, 5. Oklahoma, at 198, and Arkansas, at 23, were both down 3 rigs. Off 4 units were Texas, 925, and Pennsylvania, 97. Louisiana, at 126, was down 5 rigs from a week ago.
Canada’s rig count declined another 12 units from a week ago, reaching 134. This is up 1 unit from the same period a year ago.
Contact Steven Poruban at [email protected].