Drilling activity broke a four-week losing streak as rig count increased from the Permian Basin through Texas to the United States.
Oilfield services company Baker Hughes announced on Friday that the number of rigs in the United States, published weekly since 1944, increased by eight rigs this week to 754. That’s 91 rigs, or 13.7%, up from the 663 rigs the Company reported a year ago.
While the number of rigs drilling for oil fell by one to 589 — 65 more than the 524 oil rigs drilled last March — the number of rigs prospecting for natural gas rose the most since December 2018. The number of rigs drilling for gas rose by nine rigs to 162 — 25 up from 137 a year earlier.
Texas added five rigs for the week for a total of 371 wells statewide — 51 more than the 320 deployed last year. New Mexico added three rigs for 106. Colorado (1), Oklahoma (1), Pennsylvania (2), and West Virginia (2) were the other producing states that saw increases. Louisiana (2), Ohio (3) and Wyoming (1) all posted declines this week.
In the Permian Basin, seven new rigs were commissioned for a rig count of 350 rigs. That’s 34 more than the 316 active across the basin last year.
Lea County, New Mexico remains the most active county in the Permian — narrowly — with 53 rigs, down two for the week. Just behind was Eddy County, New Mexico, which climbed six rigs — the most of any Permian county — to 52.
Martin County added three rigs for 42, while Reeves County reported 39 rigs, up one. Midland County reported a two-week winning streak and added two drill rigs for 28 at work within county lines. Loving County saw the sharpest decline in activity, dropping to 24 for the week for rigs. Upton County lost a rig to drop to 19. Howard County lost two rigs to 18 and Glasscock County added a rig for 10 rigs.
Garza County saw renewed activity as a drill rig was commissioned in the county.
Enverus Foundations, part of energy-focused software-as-a-solution company Enverus, announced that its US rig count peaked at 840 for the week ended March 15, down 13 from the previous week’s peak is. The count is flat over the past month and up 8% year over year.
The largest regional increase over the past week has been in the Anadarko Basin with the addition of three rigs for a total of 75. The largest decrease has been in the Gulf Coast which decreased by three rigs to 108 rigs running.
The Permian added a drill rig to reach 343, and the Appalachian, DJ, and Williston basins were shallow at 56, 20, and 41 rigs, respectively
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