US drilling rig count falls 29 to reach 1,950 units

US oil and gas drilling activity this week decreased by 29 units to reach 1,950 total rigs working. The rig count for the week ended Apr. 13 was up by 178 rigs from the comparable period a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

Land drilling operations took the largest part of this hit, down 27 units to 1,885 rigs working. There were 43 rigs drilling offshore—all of which in the Gulf of Mexico—which was down 1 unit from the previous week. Rigs drilling in inland waters totaled 22, down 1 rig from last week (OGJ Online, Apr. 5, 2012).

Of the US rigs working, rigs drilling for oil lost 7 units from a week ago to reach 1,322. Rigs targeting for gas for the week ended Apr. 13 decreased by 23 rigs to reach 624 units working. There were 4 rotary rigs unclassified, an increase of 1 unit from last week.

Baker Hughes reported 237 rigs doing directional drilling, a gain of 6 units from a week ago. Horizontal drilling decreased by 20 rigs to a total of 1,145 units working.

Of the top producing states, Louisiana lost 9 units to 126 rigs working. Texas was down 7 rigs to 916; Oklahoma was off 6 units to 196. Four states lost 1 rig each, namely North Dakota, 196; Pennsylvania, 101; Colorado, 63; and Alaska, 9. Six states were unchanged from last week: New Mexico, 85; California, 45; Wyoming, 41; Arkansas, 26; West Virginia, 22; and Ohio, 12.

Canada’s rig count declined another 23 units from a week ago, reaching 164. This is down 3 units from the same period a year ago.

Contact Steven Poruban at [email protected].