Five rigs shut down
Activity in the oilfield may be softening a bit.
Drilling activity in the U.S. fell for the second week in a row, according to Baker Hughes’ Weekly Rig Count. There are now a total of 949 operational rigs in the U.S., five less than were active last week. Six land rigs shut down, meaning there are 928 land rigs active in the U.S. One offshore rig became active, slightly reversing the five offshore rigs that shut down last week.
The proportion of rigs targeting oil increased this week, with three oil rigs becoming active. Eight gas rigs also shut down this week, meaning nearly 81% of all U.S. rigs now target oil. The highest proportion of oil targeting rigs was 83.4%, set in 2014 before the downturn.
The number of horizontal rigs decreased for the second week in a row, falling by six. Horizontal rigs have been the main beneficiary of the recent activity resurgence, with horizontal rigs counts rising for 32 consecutive weeks from November to June. Vertical rig activity also decreased, with one rig shutting down. Two directional rigs, on the other hand, became active this week.
Texas drops 7 rigs
Texas, the heart of current oil and gas activity, saw seven rigs shut down this week. There are now 459 rigs active in the state, about 48% of all rigs in the U.S. Among the other major states tracked by Baker Hughes, California and New Mexico each added one rig, while one came offline in Louisiana.
Few of the major basins tracked by Baker saw changes this week, unlike the past few weeks. Three rigs became active in the Cana Woodford. Two rigs shut down in both the Arkoma Woodford and the Permian, and an additional three came offline in the Eagle Ford.
Unlike in the U.S., drilling activity in Canada increased this week, with three more rigs bringing the country’s total to 220.
Source: EnerCom Analytics
Five rigs come online in Argentina
Baker Hughes also released its monthly International Rig Count this week, outlining drilling activity outside of North America. According to Baker, there were 959 international rigs active in July, one less than were operating in June.
Activity in Latin America saw the largest increase, rising from 192 rigs to 196. This was primarily driven by Argentina, where five rigs became active last month. Activity decreased most sharply in Europe, where nine rigs shut down for a total of 82 operational rigs in July. Among the other major regions tracked by Baker, Africa added three additional rigs for a total of 89, one rig came online in Asia-Pacific and overall activity in the Middle East was unchanged.
Source: EnerCom Analytics
