US drilling activity increased slightly with 758 rotary rigs working this week, 2 more than the previous week and up from 491 units in the same period a year ago, Baker Hughes reported.
Land operations remained unchanged at 738 rigs active. Offshore drilling increased by 2 to 16 rigs working, 14 in the Gulf of Mexico, which saw an increase of a single rig. Inland waters activity was unchanged at 4 units drilling.
Of the US rigs working, 155 were drilling for natural gas, 2 more than the previous week. The number drilling for oil was unchanged at 599. Horizontal drilling increased by 1 unit to 687. Directional drilling was unchanged at 40, and vertical drilling saw a single unit increase to 31.
Louisiana had the biggest rig count increase. With 2 additional rigs, there were 64 rigs drilling in the state this week. Alaska also saw a 2-unit increase to reach 10 rigs working. New Mexico and Utah dropped a single rig each to reach respective counts of 109 and 12 rigs working this week.
Canada’s rotary rig count increased by 4 to 195 drilling, compared with 149 active rigs in the comparable period last year. Of those, 124 were drilling for oil, down 1 unit from last week, and 71 were drilling for gas, up 5 from last week.
