US drilling continues to fall
By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 21 -- US drilling activity continued to slide for the third consecutive week, down by 18 to 1,769 rotary rigs still working, Baker Hughes Inc. reported Sept. 21.
That compares with 1,754 rigs drilling during the same period in 2006. Some of the latest loss may have been weather related after Hurricane Humberto hit the Texas Coast near Port Arthur on Sept. 13. Although Humberto prompted no evacuations of offshore rigs, operators began bringing workers ashore Sept. 18 because of a low-level low pressure system off the west coast of Florida. That system was expected to strengthen and become Tropical Storm Jerry on Sept. 21.
Minerals Management Service officials said Sept. 21 that workers had been evacuated from 77 of 834 manned production platforms and 17 of 89 mobile rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. MMS reported 1.3 million b/d of oil, or 62.7% of usual production from federal waters, had been shut in along with 30.8% of the natural gas production from federal leases.
However, Shell Oil Co. said that same day it was beginning to redeploy personnel to facilities in areas not expected to be impacted by the storm.
Meanwhile, during the first week of September, Chesapeake Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City, the largest independent gas producer in the US, said it would reduce its drilling program to 140-145 rigs by the end of this year from 155-160 at that point, due to relatively low natural gas prices in recent months. Chesapeake also said it was reducing its gross gas production by 200MMcfd through a combination of production curtailments and deferred pipeline hook-ups for the rest of 2007.
That could spur other E&P companies to slow drilling activity in "what is shaping up to look like another year of high summer-ending storage levels," said analysts in the Houston office of Raymond James & Associates Inc. (OGJ Online, Sept. 10, 2007).
US offshore operations suffered the largest loss in the latest rig count, down 15 rigs to 60 working in US waters overall, including the loss of 14 rigs to 59 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Inland waters operations dropped 4 rigs with 25 still working. Land drilling increased by 1 rig to 1,684 still making hole.
The biggest drop among major producing states was in Oklahoma, down 14 rigs to 164 working. Colorado lost 6 rigs to 114. Oklahoma and New Mexico were down 3 each to 194 and 72, respectively. California's rig count dipped by 1 to 36, and Alaska was unchanged with 5 rotary rigs working. Texas gained 3 rigs to 832, and Wyoming was up 4 to 79.
Canada's rig count dipped by 5 to 359, down from 380 rigs working in the same period last year.