Canadian drilling activity continued to climb, adding 23 rigs this week after having added 39 last week. Working rigs in Canada now total 159, up 3 from a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.
The US, however, lost 8 rigs this week (all land), bringing its total to 687, 53 below year-ago levels. It was the seventh week in a row the US rig count slipped.
Offshore drilling remained flat at 20 rigs working in US waters this week, but up 4 from the 16 working the same time last year.
The number of US rigs drilling for natural gas decreased by 5 to 130 units this week. Oil drilling fell by 4 rigs to 552. Five rigs were unclassified, up one from last week.
There were 52 US directional drilling rigs active this week, 1 more than the previous week; horizontal drilling decreased by 10 units to 615, while vertical drilling increased by 1 rigs to 20.
Texas and Colorado drilling was flat this week at 347 and 16 units, respectively. New Mexico lost four rigs to drop to 104 and Ohio added three to reach 13.
