More than half of the 44 rigs lost in U.S. last week were from Permian Basin, according to March 27 report by Baker Hughes. Permian Basin’s rig count dropped by 23 to 382 from 405 (454 previous year, 405 to start 2020), and U.S. dropped by 44 to 728 from 772 (1,006 previous year, 805 to start 2020). Texas’ count March 27 was 368 (397 a week ago, 491 a year ago, 404 to start 2020), and the New Mexico count was 109 (112 a week ago, 104 a year ago, 105 to start 2020). The U.S. decline of 44 was the largest weekly drop in 4 years.
Lea County became Permian’s and New Mexico’s leader with 55 rigs after adding 1 while Eddy County laid down 4 rigs in the past week to fall to 53. In Texas, Martin and Midland counties have 40 rigs each followed by Loving and Reeves with 31 each and Howard with 29.
Texas and New Mexico remain the only states with triple-figure rig counts. Other leaders include North Dakota (48), Louisiana (44) and Oklahoma (39). Other leading regions include Eagle Ford with 63 rigs (67 previous week, 78 previous year), Williston with 49 rigs (51 previous week, 60 previous year), Haynesville with 40 rigs (43 previous week, 57 previous year) and Marcellus with 39 rigs (unchanged in past week, 65 previous year).
Houston Chronicle said Monday Chevron was only oil major to file drilling permits with the state in the past week (for three horizontal wells in Culberson County). Nine independent companies filed a total of 90 drilling permits, including 16 by Houston-based Birch Resources (horizontal wells on Rosie The Elephant lease in Martin County), 14 by Irving-based Pioneer Natural Resources (Midland and Upton counties) and 12 by Midland-based Concho Resources (Ector, Martin and Reeves counties). The other 48 permits were filed by ConocoPhillips, Diamondback Energy, EOG Resources, Ovintiv and Crownquest Operating.