US drilling activity fell this week, down 4 units to 619 rotary rigs still working this week, said Baker Hughes.
That's down from 762 active rigs in the same period last year. Land operations were down by 4 rigs to 600. Rig counts for offshore and inland water operations remained unchanged at 20 and 3 rigs working, respectively.
Of the rotary rigs working in the US, there were 497 drilling for oil this week, 5 fewer than the previous week. Those drilling for natural gas were up by 2 to 118. There were 4 rigs unclassified, down 1 from last week. Horizontal drilling remained unchanged at 553 rigs. Directional drilling was down 2 units to 53.
Among the major producing states, Texas had the biggest loss, down 7 rigs with 297 still making hole. North Dakota and Wyoming were down a single unit each to respective totals of 30 and 19 rigs running.
New Mexico gained 4 rigs to end the week with 106 units working. Oklahoma also added rigs, ending the week with 32 through a 2-unit gain. Canada's rig count fell by 11 units to 180, down 178 from the 215 rotary rigs that were drilling in the same period a year ago.
The global rig count for September was 1,760, down 28 rigs from 1,788 units in August, and down 93 units from the 1,853 rigs working during the same period a year ago. Excluding the US and Canada, the international rig count for September fell by 12 units from August to 940.