Permian Basin added 2 rigs in the past week, according to Baker Hughes, but Texas and U.S. declined in the Jan. 24 report. Permian Basin was up 2 to 405, but down 79 in the past year. Texas had 397 active oil and gas drilling rigs (401 previous week, 517 previous year), and U.S. had 794 rigs (796 previous week, 1,059 previous year). New Mexico added 4 rigs in the past week to 109 (112 a year ago). Of the U.S. total, 676 are oil-directed (673 previous week, 862 previous year), and 710 are horizontal (709 previous week, 932 previous year).
Eddy County in New Mexico remains the Permian leader with 57 rigs (up 2 in past week) followed by Lea, N.M., with 52 (up 2), Midland with 48 (up 1), Reeves with 42 (down 2), Martin with 35 (unchanged), Loving with 34 (unchanged), Howard with 28 (up 1) and Ward with 20 (down 1).
Third among states in rig count was Louisiana with 54 (54 last week, 63 last year) followed closely by Oklahoma with 53 (53 last week, 126 last year) and North Dakota with 52 (52 last week, 57 last year). Other leading regions as of Jan. 24 are runner-up Eagle Ford with 69 rigs (69 last week, 81 last year), Williston with 53 (53 last week, 58 last year), Haynesville with 43 (45 last week, 54 last year) and Marcellus with 40 (41 last week, 63 last year).