Drilling activity continues to grow

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 15 -- US drilling activity continued to climb for the third consecutive week, up by 28 rotary rigs to 1,248 units working, compared with 1,568 rigs making hole in the comparable period a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

Land operations had the biggest increase, up 27 to 1,194 rigs drilling. Inland waters activity was up 2 rigs to 13. US drilling in the Gulf of Mexico declined by 1 rig to 40, with a total count of 41 rigs working US waters.

Of the US rigs now working, 811 are drilling for natural gas, up 30 units from the previous count. The number drilling for oil dropped by 2 to 425. There were 12 rotary rigs unclassified. Horizontal drilling increased by 28 to 611 units. Directional drilling gained 5 to 204.

Texas led this week’s increase, up 15 rotary rigs with 513 drilling. North Dakota and West Virginia increased by 4 rigs each to 71 and 26, respectively. Louisiana and Oklahoma each added 3 rigs for respective counts of 191 and 101. New Mexico was up by 1 unit to 51. Pennsylvania and Arkansas were unchanged at 66 and 36, in that order. Colorado was down 1 rig to 42; California dropped 1 to 25. Rig counts in Wyoming and Alaska declined by 2 each to 36 and 5, respectively.

Canada’s rotary rig count jumped by 124 to 466 working this week, up from 438 active rigs in the same period last year.