US drilling activity climbs

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, Feb. 23 -- US drilling activity continued to climb for the fourth consecutive week with 1,754 rotary rigs working, 8 more than the previous week.

That's the highest rig count in 22 weeks, when the same number of rigs was working. A year ago at this time, there were 1,543 rotary rigs drilling, said Baker Hughes Inc.

Land operations had the biggest increase this week, up by 5 units to 1,637 working. Activity in inland waters increased by 2 rigs to 28. Offshore drilling increased by 1 rig to 85 in the Gulf of Mexico and 89 in US waters as a whole.

Louisiana and Oklahoma had the biggest additions to their rig counts this week, 4 each to 206 and 182, respectively. Alaska added 3 rigs, with 14 not drilling. New Mexico increased by 2 to 85, while Colorado was up by 1 to 95. Offsetting that, Wyoming was down by 4 units to 69 working. Texas and California dropped 2 each to 812 and 32, respectively.

Canada's rig count fell by 33 to 603 units drilling. That's down from 699 in the same period last year.