The count of active oil and gas drilling rigs in U.S. declined to the lowest level in 31 months in Baker Hughes’ latest report. As of Nov. 1, there were 822 rigs in U.S. (830 a week ago, 1,067 a year ago), the lowest total since March 2017. The Houston-based oilfield service firm said there were 416 rigs in Texas (417 a week ago, 487 a year ago), 416 rigs in Texas (418 a week ago, 533 a year ago) and 108 rigs in New Mexico (110 a week ago, 102 a year ago). It was New Mexico’s fourth straight week of losses from a high of 113 as of Oct. 4.
Oklahoma (51 rigs as of Nov. 1) has dropped to fifth among states behind Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana (56 rigs) and North Dakota (52). Oklahoma has lost 93 rigs in the past year. Rig counts in other leading regions include Eagle Ford with 63 (63 last week, 79 last year), Williston with 53 (53 last week, 56 last year) and Haynesville with 51 (52 last week, 51 last year).
Lea, N.M., Midland, Reeves and Eddy, N.M., remain the leading counties in Permian Basin.
Enverus Drillinginfo said, “The rig count declined by 5 percent over the past month, continuing the downward trajectory that began at the end of 2018 (down 27 percent from November 2018). Besides some lingering weakness in oil and gas prices over the past year, another factor mentioned recently by several oilfield service companies is budget exhaustion for their clients.”