By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 4 -- US drilling activity continued to climb, with 10 more rotary rigs active this week for a total 1,009 units—just slightly more than half the 2,013 units drilling in the same period a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.
Land operations accounted for all of the gains this week, up 10 rigs to 970 working. Inland water activity lost 1 rig to 6 units working. Offshore activity increased by 1 rig to 31 in the Gulf of Mexico and a total of 33 in US waters overall.
Of the rigs now working, 701 are drilling for natural gas, 2 more than the previous week. Those drilling for oil increased by 9 units to 295. There were 13 rigs unclassified. Horizontal drilling decreased by 3 rigs to 426. Directional drilling is up 12 units to 189.
Texas marked the largest increase among major producing states, up 12 to 388 units working. Louisiana gained 4 to 139 units. Colorado increased by 2 to 45. New Mexico gained 1 rig to 46 units working. Oklahoma and Wyoming were unchanged with respective counts of 79 and 34 rigs drilling. Alaska and North Dakota lost 1 rig each, to respective counts of 8 and 47. California’s count dropped by 2 units to 20 and Arkansas lost 3 rigs to 42.
In other states of interest, Pennsylvania’s rig count was unchanged at 53 units, Utah lost 3 rigs to 14, and West Virginia was down 1 to 19.
Canada’s rig count was unchanged at 184 units drilling, compared with a rig count of 418 during the same period last year.
Photo from bp.
Photo from Equinor | Stuart Conway.
