US drilling activity increased with 753 rotary rigs working for the week ended Apr. 21, five more than the previous week, and up from 695 units in the same period a year ago, Baker Hughes reported.
All five of the rigs added were on land, where operations activity increased to 732 rigs working. Offshore drilling was unchanged at 20 rigs working, 18 in the Gulf of Mexico. Inland waters activity was unchanged with one active unit.
Of the US rigs working, 159 were drilling for natural gas, two more than last week. The number of rigs drilling for oil increased by three to 591. Horizontal drilling increased by four units to 687. Directional drilling increased by two rigs to 48, while vertical drilling saw a single unit decrease to 18.
Texas and Utah each saw rig counts increase. With two additional rigs each, there were 377 rigs drilling in Texas and 13 in Utah this week. New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Colorado saw a one-unit increase each to reach respective counts of 105, 56, and 19 rigs working.
Wyoming and Kansas each dropped a rig to leave 18 rigs working in Wyoming and none in Kansas.
Canada’s rotary rig count decreased by 6 to 105 units, compared with 101 active rigs in the comparable period last year. Of the rigs working this week, 63 were drilling for gas, down three units from last week, and 42 were drilling for oil, also down three units from last week.