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Baker Hughes US rig count unchanged at 585
Permian, most active basin, down 1 at 303; international count for October up 3 from September at 950, but down 12 year-over-year Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Baker Hughes' U.S. rotary drilling rig count was 585 the week ending Nov. 1, unchanged from last week, and down by 33 from 618 a year ago, also unchanged from two weeks ago. Over the last eight weeks the rig count was unchanged in two weeks, down in four and up in two weeks with gains of nine and losses of six, compared to a downward trend dominant since the beginning of May. This is the lowest domestic rig count since December 2021.
A drop of 17 to 731 on May 12, 2023, was the steepest weekly drop since June of 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the count also dropped by 17 to 284 on June 5, following drops as steep as 73 rigs in one week in April. The count continued down to 251 at the end of July 2020, reaching an all-time low of 244 in mid-August 2020.
For 2023, the count hit its low point Nov. 10 at 616, down from a high of 775 on Jan. 13, 2023. In 2022, the count bottomed out at 588 Jan. 1, reaching a high for the year of 784 on Nov. 23.
When the count dropped to 244 in mid-August 2020, it was the lowest the domestic rotary rig count had been since the Houston based oilfield services company began issuing weekly U.S. numbers in 1944.
Prior to 2020, the low was 404 rigs in May 2016. The count peaked at 4,530 in 1981.
The count was in the low 790s at the beginning of 2020 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, where it remained through mid-March of that year when it began to fall, dropping below what had been the historic low in early May with a count of 374 and continuing to drop through the third week of August 2020 when it gained back 10 rigs.
The Nov. 1 count includes 479 rigs targeting oil, down one from the previous week and down 17 from 496 a year ago, with 102 rigs targeting natural gas, up one from the previous week and down 16 from 118 a year ago, and four miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from the previous week and unchanged from a year ago.
Fifty of the rigs reported Nov. 1 were drilling directional wells, 517 were drilling horizontal wells and 18 were drilling vertical wells.
Alaska rig count unchanged North Dakota (34), Pennsylvania (13) and Utah (12) were each up by a single rig.
Texas (281) was down two rigs week over week and Oklahoma (42) was down one rig.
Rig counts in other states were unchanged from the previous week: Alaska (10), California (6), Colorado (12), Louisiana (36), New Mexico (100), Ohio (10), West Virginia (10) and Wyoming (17).
Baker Hughes shows Alaska with 10 rotary rigs active Nov. 1, unchanged from the previous week and up by one from a year ago when the count was nine.
The rig count in the Permian, the most active basin in the country, was down one from the previous week at 303 and down by seven from 310 a year ago.
International rig count up 3 in October Baker Hughes' monthly international rig count for October, issued Nov. 1, is up by three from September at 950, and down by 12 from a count of 962 in October 2023, with land rigs down nine to 726 month over month and offshore rigs up 12 to 224.
Baker Hughes began providing a monthly international rig count in 1975. The international count excludes North America, which is included in the company's worldwide figures.
The Middle East accounted for the most rigs in the international totals for October, 342, followed by Asia Pacific with 231, Latin America with 155, Europe with 122 and Africa with 100.
The U.S. rig count averaged 585 in October, down two from September, and down 37 from October 2023, while the Canadian count for October averaged 219, up by two from September and up by 27 from October 2023.
Worldwide the rig count averaged 1,754 in October, up four from 1,751 in September and down 22 from 1,776 in October 2023.
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