Houston oilfield services firm Baker Hughes continues to report declining rig counts as U.S. crude oil production continues to set records. U.S. Department of Energy said estimated production last week reached a record of 12.6 million barrels per day of crude oil. And as of Oct. 4, Baker Hughes said in the past week another 5 rigs were idled across the U.S., including 4 in Texas. U.S. had 855 active oil and gas rigs (860 previous week, 1,052 previous year), and Texas had 414 rigs (418 previous week, 524 previous year). It was the ninth straight week of declines in Texas and seventh in U.S. New Mexico again posted the largest increase among states with 113 rigs (109 previous week, 99 previous year).
Permian Basin rig count as of Oct. 4, according to Baker Hughes, was 415 (414 previous week, 485 previous year). Lea County, N.M., added 6 rigs for a total of 65 to lead Reeves’ count of 54. Other county leaders were Eddy, N.M., with 45 rigs, Midland with 42, Loving and Martin each with 35, Howard with 24 and Ward with 21.
Trailing Permian among regions were distant runner-up Eagle Ford with 60 rigs (62 last week, 78 last year), Williston with 55 (53 last week, 52 last year), Haynesville with 50 (50 last week, 50 last year) and Marcellus with 48 (50 previous week, 56 previous year).
Austin-based Enverus Drillinginfo, a leading energy data analytics company, said Oct. 3 that 97 percent of all U.S. onshore drilling occurs in 12 states – California, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming. Since drilling peaked in November 2018, operators have idled 22 percent of rigs. Oklahoma has experienced the biggest decline by losing 58 percent of rigs from its peak level. Among the states with modest gains is New Mexico where sustained growth in Delaware Basin in Lea and Eddy counties continues to spur activity.
