Largest increase since February
The growth in drilling activity in the U.S. accelerated this week, with the largest increase in 11 weeks according to Baker Hughes’ Weekly Rig Count.
A net 13 new rigs came online this week, meaning there are 1,045 operational in the U.S. Ten of these rigs were land based, while one is drilling in inland waters and two are offshore. There are 1,021 land-based rigs currently operating, vastly outnumbering the three inland waters and 21 offshore rigs in the U.S.
While 21 offshore rigs marks the highest activity level since November, offshore still makes up a mere 2% of drilling activity. In 2000, the earlies date Baker reports offshore rig counts, these rigs accounted for over 16% of all U.S. drilling. However, this proportion gradually fell in the next decade, as shale operations consumed an ever-growing proportion of all U.S. drilling. The lowest proportion of offshore activity in the past 18 years was recorded in July 2010, during President Obama’s deepwater drilling moratorium. At that time there were 1,559 land based rigs and only 12 offshore rigs operational, meaning offshore operations made up a mere 0.8% of all drilling.
Source: EnerCom Analytics
New rigs continued to focus on oil targets, with ten such rigs coming online. Three gas rigs also began drilling this week, meaning there are a total of 844 oil and 199 gas rigs currently drilling.
Unusually, most new rigs this week are directional, as eight such rigs began drilling. Horizontal rigs, which make up the vast majority of operations, added five this week while verticals were unchanged. Directional rigs now account for 72 rigs, while 918 horizontal and 55 vertical rigs are operational.
Rigs moved to Texas in significant numbers once again this week, as eight began drilling in the Lone Star State. Three more came online in Colorado and Oklahoma, while two started operations in Alaska. One began drilling in Louisiana and West Virginia, and one shut down in Wyoming. The only significant decline was seen in New Mexico, where four rigs came offline.
Permian still provides the U.S. heartbeat
The Permian remains the heart of U.S. drilling, adding five more rigs this week. A total of 463 rigs are drilling in the basin, the highest count since January 2015. Every major basin individually tracked by Baker saw rig counts increase or stay steady, no decreases were reported. This is a rare situation, and has only occurred eight other times since 2010. Two rigs came online in the DJ-Niobrara and Eagle Ford, while one began drilling in the Cana Woodford, Marcellus and Mississippian.
