There were a total of 776 oil and gas drilling rigs working in the US this week, down by 4 units from last week. The count for the week ended Dec. 16 was up by 197 rigs compared with the same period a year ago, Baker Hughes reported.
Land drilling operations were down by 1 unit to 759 rigs working. There were 15 rigs drilling offshore—all in the Gulf of Mexico—which was down 3 rigs from the previous week. Rigs drilling in inland waters totaled 2, unchanged from last week.
Rigs drilling for oil in the US decreased by 5 units from a week ago to reach 620. Rigs targeting gas for the week ended Dec. 16 increased by 1 rig to reach 154.
Baker Hughes reported 43 rigs conducting directional drilling, which was down 3 units from last week. Horizontal drilling decreased by 1 unit to reach a total of 707 rigs.
Of the top producing states, Texas was down 3 rigs to 367. Wyoming, at 21, was down 2 from a week ago. Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Colorado each lost 1 rig to reach respective counts of 68, 37, and 21. Louisiana, at 69, was up 2 rigs. New Mexico and Alaska were up 1 rig each to 107 and 9, respectively.
Canada’s rig count decreased by 3 rigs from a week ago, reaching 199. This is up 32 units from the same period a year ago.