US drilling rig rises by 8 units to 1,989

US oil and gas drilling activity this week increased by 8 units to 1,989 total rigs working. The rig count for the week ended Mar. 2 was up by 282 rigs from the comparable period a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

Land drilling operations were up 6 units this week to 1,929 rigs working. There were 40 rigs drilling offshore, an decrease of 3 rigs from the previous week. All of these rigs were drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Rigs drilling in inland waters totaled 20, up 5 units from last week.

Of the US rigs working, rigs drilling for oil made a 28-unit jump from a week ago to reach 1,293 rigs. Rigs drilling for gas for the week ended Mar. 2 lost 19 rigs to reach 691 units. There were 5 rotary rigs unclassified, down 1 unit from the previous week.

Baker Hughes reported 215 rigs doing directional drilling, up 5 units. Horizontal drilling increased by 5 rigs to a total of 1,170 working.

Texas and North Dakota had the biggest gains this week of the top producing states, up 6 units each to 926 and 193 rigs working, respectively. Oklahoma was up 3 units to 201 rigs working. Three states made 1-rig climbs this week. These were New Mexico, 82; Wyoming, 46; and California, 44. Four states were unchanged this week: Pennsylvania, 105; Arkansas, 29; West Virginia, 29; and Alaska, 9. Louisiana lost 3 rigs this week to reach 136 units, while Colorado was off 4 units to 65 rigs working.

Canada’s rig count declined by 20 units from a week ago, reaching 681. This is up 56 units from the same period a year ago.