Count of active oil and gas drilling rigs in Permian Basin is up 14 percent in first 2 weeks of 2021, according to reports from Baker Hughes. As of Jan. 15, there were 189 rigs in Permian Basin (179 previous week, 175 to start 2021), 169 rigs in Texas (161 previous week, 161 to start 2021), 70 rigs in New Mexico (69 previous week, 65 to start 2021) and 373 rigs in U.S. (360 previous week, 351 to start 2021).
Devon Energy and EOG are the most active drillers in Permian, according to Enverus, with 14 rigs each as of Jan. 13. EOG added 10 rigs since end of August, and 12 of its 14 are in Lea County, N.M., with 11 on federal leases. Devon has 8 of 14 rigs on federal leases.
Lea remains the Permian leader with 35 rigs (down 1) followed by Eddy, N.M., with 34 (up 2), Midland with 19 (up 1), Martin with 18 (up 1), Howard with 17 (up 3), Reeves with 14 (unchanged) and Loving with 11 (unchanged).
Rig counts as of Jan. 15 in other leading states include Louisiana in third with 47 rigs (up 4 in previous week), Pennsylvania with 19 (down 2 in previous week), Oklahoma with 17 (down 1), West Virginia with 11 (up 2) and North Dakota with 10 (down 1). Among other regions, Haynesville was runner-up with 44 rigs (up 1 in previous week), Marcellus reported 30 rigs (unchanged), Eagle Ford had 28 rigs (up 2), and Cana Woodford and Williston had 10 rigs each.