US drilling activity was down this week, dropping 5 rotary rigs for a total of 624 working, down 134 from 758 a year ago, officials at Baker Hughes reported Friday.
The decrease was essentially in land drilling, down 4 units with 601 working this week. Offshore activity was down a single unit to 21 in the Gulf of Mexico and 23 the US as a whole. Drilling in inland waters was unchanged at 0.
Canadian drilling activity fell by 38 rigs to 169 with the seasonal spring break up. The current rig count is up 4 from 165 a year ago, however.
US drilling for natural gas decreased this week, down 4 rigs to 112. The number of rigs drilling for oil declined by 1 to 509. There were 3 rigs unclassified.
Directional drilling increased by 2 rigs to 56 this week. Horizontal drilling was down 6 to 556.
Louisiana led this week's decrease, down 4 rotary rigs to 44. New Mexico and Pennsylvania dropped 1 rig each, bringing their respective counts to 106 and 21. Alaska increased its rig count by 1 to reach 14 rigs working.
