By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Apr. 20 -- US drilling increased with a total 1,213 rotary rigs working this week, officials at Baker Hughes Inc. in Houston reported Friday.
That's 15 more than the previous week and up sharply from 817 during the same period last year. Most of the growth reported by Baker Hughes was in the number of land rigs working, up 12 to 1,023 for the week.
Of the rigs working in the US and its waters this week, 967 were drilling for gas, while 244 -- down 29 from last week -- were drilling for oil. Two rigs were unclassified.
Texas led this week's increase with 487 rigs making hole, up eight from the previous week. Louisiana's rig count gained six to 225, while New Mexico had 82 rotary rigs working, up four. There were 143 rigs working in Oklahoma this week, four less than previously. Wyoming's rig count was down one to 50.
Canada had 188 rotary rigs turning to the right, 29 less than the previous week with the seasonal slowdown, but up from 124 a year ago.
A new deepwater semisubmersible rig joined the US Gulf of Mexico fleet this week with a contract to work in that region through the end of 2002, said officials at the ODS-Petrodata Group, Houston.
That inched up the utilization rate to 89.6% among mobile offshore rigs in those waters, with 189 units under contract out of the 211 available.
Offshore activity in European waters is still unchanged at 93.1% utilization with 94 rigs contracted out of a fleet of 101.
Worldwide, the net number of mobile offshore rigs under contract increased by three this week to 582 out of the 649 available for work. That moved global offshore rig utilization up to 89.7%, ODS-Petrodata reported.
