Canadian drilling activity soared this week. After adding 10 rigs last week to 97, another 39 rigs started drilling this week for a total of 136 working, officials at Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday. That is still 5 fewer than the 141 units drilling in Canada during the same period last year.
US drilling activity, however, decreased again this week, as 1 rotary rig was removed from service for a total of 695 working. That is 38 fewer than the 733 total units drilling during the same period a year ago.
US land operations were down a single rig from the previous week, with 673 currently active. Offshore drilling remained flat at 20 rigs working in US waters this week, but up 5 from the 15 working the same time last year.
The number of US rigs drilling for natural gas decreased by 2 to 135 units this week. Oil drilling increased by 1 rig to 556. Four rigs were unclassified, unchanged from last week.
There were 51 US directional drilling rigs active this week, 1 fewer than the previous week; horizontal drilling decreased by 3 units to 625, while vertical drilling increased by 3 rigs to 19.
Texas decreased drilling this week by 6 rigs, to 347 units. Colorado dropped a single unit to leave 16 rigs for the week. Other US states lost a total of 6 rigs, with Wyoming gaining 2 of them for a new total of 17, while four states gained 1 rig each: New Mexico now has 108 rigs working; Louisiana 53, Oklahoma 44, and Utah 13.