Eddy County, N.M., has replaced Lea, N.M., as the Permian Basin’s most active county for oil and gas drilling rigs. Eddy added 2 rigs in the past week for a new total of 37, and Lea was down 3 rigs to 34. Other Permian leaders as of May 28 were Midland with 31 (down 1), Reeves with 24 (up 2), Martin with 20 (up 2), Loving with 19 (up 1), Upton with 13 (up 1) and Howard with 11 (up 1).
In its weekly report of May 28, Baker Hughes said there were 233 rigs in Texas (up 2 in past week), 218 rigs in Permian Basin (up 4), 71 rigs in New Mexico (down 1) and 457 rigs in U.S. (up 2).
Texas and Oklahoma (up 2 to 28) were the only major producing states to add rigs in the past week. Rig counts in other states included Louisiana with 53 (unchanged), Pennsylvania with 17 (down 2) and North Dakota with 16 (unchanged). Haynesville remains No. 2 among regions with 47 rigs (unchanged) followed by Eagle Ford with 33 (up 1), Marcellus with 28 (down 2), Williston with 16 (unchanged) and Cana Woodford with 15 (unchanged).
Midland Reporter Telegram said the rig count is “held in check by cautious producers focused on returning cash to shareholders rather than growing production.” Scott D. Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources and a member of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum Hall of Fame, told CNBC last month, “We’re moving away from this generation of grow, grow, grow to distributing over half of our cash flow back to the investor base.”