Oil companies idled 5 drilling rigs this week, the second drop in two weeks as oil prices in recent months have slowed shale drilling activity. The decline brought the nation’s rig count to 949 — still more than double where it was a year ago, according to the Baker Hughes report.
*U.S. TOTAL RIG COUNT DOWN 5 AT 949
*U.S. OIL RIG COUNT UP 3 TO 768
*U.S. GAS RIG COUNT DOWN 8 TO 181
Among major oil- and gas-producing states, California and New Mexico each increased by one rig. Texas lost seven rigs and Louisiana decreased by one.
The 5 most active counties in Oklahoma with rigs running, are Blaine (22), Kingfisher (20), Grady (19), Dewey (12) and Canadian (9).
The Permian basin and the Arkoma Woodford lost 2 rigs each this week, while the Eagle Ford lost 3 rigs. Despite this week’s loss, the Permian basin still has 188 rigs more than last year. Cana Woodford’s count increased by 3 rigs this week.
Oil prices rose slightly on Friday in volatile trading. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 23 cents or 0.47 percent to $48.82 a barrel.
The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May of 2016 at 404.
Compiled and Published by GIB KNIGHT
Gib Knight is a private oil and gas investor and consultant, providing clients advanced analytics and building innovative visual business intelligence solutions to visualize the results, across a broad spectrum of regulatory filings and production data in Oklahoma and Texas. He is the founder of OklahomaMinerals.com, an online resource designed for mineral owners in Oklahoma.
