US drilling rig count up by 1 to 791

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes reports the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. the week ending Feb. 21 is up by one from the previous week to 791 but down by 256 from 1,047 a year ago.

In its weekly rig count the Houston oilfield services company said 679 rigs targeted oil, up one from the previous week and down 174 from a year ago, while 110 targeted natural gas, unchanged from the previous week and down 84 from a year ago. There were two miscellaneous rigs active, unchanged from the previous week and up by two from a year ago.

The company said 45 of the holes were directional, 714 were horizontal and 32 were vertical.

The rig count in Alaska was up by three from the previous week.

New Mexico was up by two rigs and Oklahoma was up by one rig.

Rig counts were unchanged from the previous week in North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

Texas, at 397, has the most active rigs in the country.

California, Louisiana and Wyoming were each down by one rig from the previous week.

Colorado was down by two rigs.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with 12 rigs active for the week ending Feb. 21, down one from a year ago.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May 2016 at 404.

- KRISTEN NELSON