By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 21 -- US drilling activity continued to decline this week, down by 4 rotary rigs to 1,107 working, officials at Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday. That's up from 826 at this same period last year.
The bulk of that decline was in offshore operations, down by 8 rigs to 97 drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and 101 in US offshore waters as a whole. Drilling in inland waters also decreased, losing 1 rig with 14 still working. Those losses were partially offset by an increase of 5 land rigs, with 992 units making hole.
Drilling activity in Canada dropped by 9 units to 414 active rigs this week, up from 287 a year ago.
Among rigs working in the US, the number drilling for natural gas was unchanged at 948, while those drilling for oil decreased by 4 to 157 this week. There were 2 rigs unclassified. Directional drilling declined by 11 rigs to 269, and horizontal drilling was down by 1 rig to 98.
Louisiana led this week's decline, down by 10 rotary rigs with 155 still working. New Mexico and Wyoming were down by 2 rigs each to respective counts of 62 and 61. Texas' rig count was unchanged at 474.
On the other hand, Oklahoma's rig count increased by 6 to 143. California was up by 2 to 25, and Alaska increased by 1 to 11.
Although Baker Hughes reported a decline in the number of offshore rigs actually drilling this week, ODS-Petrodata Consulting & Research, Houston, said the number of mobile offshore rigs under contract in the US sector of the gulf increased by 2 to 124 while the available fleet decreased by 1 to 164. That boosted the rig utilization rate to 75.6% in those waters.
In European waters, however, the number of contracted rigs dipped by 1 to 74, out of an available fleet of 95, dropping utilization to 77.9%. Worldwide, the number of mobile offshore rigs under contract registered a net decrease of 1 to 525 out of a total fleet of 656, for a utilization rate of 80% this week.
