US drilling activity increased by 3 units to 629 rotary rigs working this week, down from the 749 units working during the period a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.
Oil operations accounted for the gain, up 3 rigs to 506. Gas-directed rigs were down a single unit to 119. Unclassified rigs were down 1 unit to 4.
There were 608 rigs drilling on land this week, a 2-rig increase from last week. There were 732 rigs drilling on US lands during the year-ago period. The number of rigs drilling offshore increased by a single unit to reach 21 working for the week. The total is up 5 from the 16 rigs drilling offshore this time last year.
Directional drilling increased by 2 to reach 52 rigs this week; vertical drilling was unchanged at 16 rigs. The horizontal rig count increased by 1 unit to 561 rigs working this week.
The rig count in Alaska grew by 2 units to reach 13 rigs working for the week. The rig counts in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and West Virginia increased by 1 unit each to respective counts of 103, 45, and 8.
Texas’s rig count fell by 2 during the week to 299.
Canada's rig count was unchanged with 231 units drilling for the week. There were 246 rigs drilling in Canada this time last year. In Canada, 87 rigs were drilling for gas, down 3 from last week. The number of oil-directed rigs increased by 3 to 144 units working for the week.