US drilling increases as count falls in gulf

US drilling continued to increase despite further decline in offshore activity. There were 1,571 rotary rigs working in the US this week, 4 more than the previous week and up from 920 a year ago, said Baker Hughes Inc.

July 16, 2010

2 min read

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 16 -- US drilling continued to increase despite further decline in offshore activity. There were 1,571 rotary rigs working in the US this week, 4 more than the previous week and up from 920 a year ago, said Baker Hughes Inc.

Offshore drilling declined by 4 rigs to 12 still working, all in the Gulf of Mexico. Inland waters activity increased by 1 rig to 13. Land operations continued to grow, up by 7 rigs to 1,546 drilling.

Of the US rigs working, 979 were drilling for natural gas, an increase of 15 from the previous week. The number of rigs drilling for oil declined by 12 to 580. There were 12 rigs unclassified. Horizontal drilling was down by 4 to 859. Directional drilling retreated by 12 to 214.

Oklahoma posted the greatest gain among major producing states, up by 5 to 132 rotary rigs working this week. Colorado gained 3 to 61. Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and California gained 2 rigs each for respective counts of 90, 70, and 37. North Dakota gained 1 unit to 122. Louisiana and West Virginia were unchanged at 176 and 24, respectively. Wyoming and Arkansas lost 2 rigs each to respective totals of 41 and 38. Alaska’s rig count fell by 4 to 5. Texas was down 5 rigs to 673.

Canada’s rotary rig count increased by 17 to 365 working this week, up from 152 a year ago.