Land drilling climbs as gulf rig count sags

Land drilling continued to increase while offshore drilling continued to dribble away this week with a total 1,557 rotary rigs working in the US and its waters, 5 more than the previous week and up strongly from 928 during the comparable week in 2009, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

July 2, 2010

2 min read

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 2 -- Land drilling continued to increase while offshore drilling continued to dribble away this week with a total 1,557 rotary rigs working in the US and its waters, 5 more than the previous week and up strongly from 928 during the comparable week in 2009, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

Land operations increased by 7 units to 1,529 drilling. Inland waters activity declined by 1 rig to 12 working. Offshore drilling lost 1 rig with 16 still making hole, all of them in the Gulf of Mexico.

Of the US rigs working, 960 were drilling for natural gas, an addition of 2 since the previous week. The number drilling for oil increased by 4 to 587. There were 10 rigs unclassified. Horizontal drilling jumped by 16 units to 849. Directional drilling dropped 6 rigs to 230.

Texas registered the biggest increase among major producing states, up by 9 rotary rigs to 680 drilling. New Mexico increased by 3 to 68. Oklahoma gained 2 for a total 128. Wyoming and Arkansas increased by 1 rig each to 44 and 39, respectively. Pennsylvania and Colorado were unchanged with respective counts of 83 and 54. North Dakota, California, and Alaska were down 1 rig each to 119, 35, ad 8, respectively. Louisiana lost 2 to 178. West Virginia dropped 5, with 23 rotary rigs still working.

Canada’s rotary rig count jumped by 50 to 323 drilling this week, compared with 165 in the same period last year.