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Baker Hughes US rig count down 2 at 590
International rig count averaged 899 in March, down 6 from February, with land rigs down 2 month over month, offshore rigs down 4 Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Baker Hughes' U.S. rotary drilling rig count was 590 on April 4, down by two from the previous week, down by 30 from 620 a year ago and down by three from two weeks ago. Over the last eight weeks the rig count was up in four weeks, down in three and unchanged in one with a combined gain of eight against a loss of four.
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 2024, the count peaked March 1 (and again March 15) at 629, hitting its low point June 28 at 581. In 2023 the count peaked early in the year at 775 on Jan. 13, bottoming out Nov. 10 at 616.
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 April 4 count includes 489 rigs targeting oil, up by five from the previous week and down 19 from 508 a year ago, with 96 rigs targeting natural gas, down by seven from the previous week and down 14 from 110 a year ago, and five miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from the previous week and up by two from a year ago.
Forty-eight of the rigs reported April 4 were drilling directional wells, 529 were drilling horizontal wells and 13 were drilling vertical wells.
Alaska rig count unchanged Pennsylvania (15) was up by one rig while Texas (277) was down by three.
Rig counts in other states were unchanged from the previous week: Alaska (10), California (8), Colorado (8), Louisiana (30), New Mexico (101), North Dakota (32), Ohio (10), Oklahoma (53), Utah (12), West Virginia (11) and Wyoming (21).
Baker Hughes shows Alaska with 10 rotary rigs active April 4, unchanged from the previous week and down by four from a year ago when the state's count was 14.
The rig count in the Permian, the most active basin in the country, was down by three from the previous week at 294 and down by 23 from 317 a year ago.
International rig count down by 6 in March Baker Hughes' monthly international rig count for March, issued April 4, is down by six from February at 899 and down 72 from a count of 971 in March 2024, with land rigs down by two at 709, month over month, and offshore rigs down six at 190.
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 March, 339, followed by Asia Pacific with 211, Latin America with 131, Europe with 121 and Africa with 97.
The U.S. rig count averaged 592 in March, up by three from 590 in February, and down 33 from March 2024, while the Canadian count for March averaged 194, down 53 from 247 in February and down three from March 2024.
Worldwide the rig count averaged 1,685 in March, down 56 from 1,532 in February and down 108 from 1,793 in March 2024.
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