Baker Hughes: Gas rigs push down overall US rig count by 5

The overall US drilling rig count declined during the week ended Aug. 11.

The overall tally of active US drilling rigs decreased 5 units to 654, according to Baker Hughes data. The count is down 109 units from the year-ago level.

Gas-directed rigs were down 5 units to 123. This time last year, 160 rigs were drilling for gas.

Oil-directed rigs were unchanged this week with 525 rigs running, but still down 76 units from the year-ago period.

Three onshore rigs stopped work, leaving 632 for the week. Rig counts for inland waters and offshore were down a single rig each to end the week with 4 and 18 units working, respectively.

Texas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania each dropped 2 units this week to respective counts of 312, 48, and 19. 

Oklahoma added 1 unit to end the week with 40.

Canada’s rig count increased by 2 this week to 190, down 11 from the year-ago period. In Canada, 116 rigs were drilling for oil, down 2 from last week and down 21 from this time last year. Gas-directed rigs increased by 4 to reach 74 for the week, up 10 from the year-ago period.