US drilling activity was little changed from a week ago, down just 1 unit with 585 rotary rigs working the week ended Aug. 23. This compares with 632 rigs drilling in the same period last year, said Baker Hughes Inc.
The loss was in land operations, down by a single unit to 566 still active. Drilling in inland waters was unchanged at 0. Offshore drilling was unchanged with 19 rigs working in US waters, including 17 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Of those rigs working, 483 were drilling for oil, unchanged from the previous week. There were 97 rotary rigs drilling for natural gas, 1 fewer than last week. There were 5 rigs unclassified, unchanged from last week. Directional drilling was down 1 unit to 47. Horizontal drilling increased by 3 rigs to 524. With 14 units running, there were 3 fewer vertical rigs drilling this week.
Among the major producing states, Texas and Oklahoma saw weekly rig count increases. With 274 rigs running, Texas gained 1 rig for the week. Oklahoma added 1 rig to increase its count to 38. North Dakota dropped 2 rigs to end the week with 33 rigs working. New Mexico and Utah each dropped 1 rig to end the week with counts of 106 and 12, respectively.
The Canadian rig count increased by 2 to 219 rotary rigs working, up 29 from the year-ago period.