For the third consecutive week, Texas led a comeback of drilling activity in U.S. Baker Hughes said in its weekly count of active oil and gas drilling rigs that as of Oct. 27 there were 313 rigs in Permian Basin (up 1 in previous week, down 33 in previous year), 311 in Texas (up 3 in past week, down 57 in previous year) and 625 in U.S. (up 1 in previous week, down 143 in previous year). In this modest three-week growth, Permian is up 4 rigs from 309, Texas is up 14 from 297, and U.S. is up 6 from 619.
Baker Hughes said the count in New Mexico was down for the third straight week to 100 – matching its lowest count of the year. This count is down 1 in the past week and 6 in the past year.
Lea County, N.M., reported a flat count of 56 rigs to lead Permian Basin. Other basin leaders include Eddy, N.M., with 43 (down 1 in past week), Martin with 40 (unchanged), Reeves with 32 (unchanged), Loving with 26 (unchanged) and Midland with 24 (unchanged). Also, there were 13 rigs in Ward (up 1), 12 in Glasscock and 11 in Howard.
Louisiana remains No. 3 among states with 42 rigs (43 week ago, 60 year ago) followed by Oklahoma with 37 (37 week ago, 66 year ago) and North Dakota with 30 (30 week ago, 36 year ago). Eagle Ford in south Texas remains No. 2 among regions with 51 rigs (50 week ago, 70 year ago) followed by Haynesville with 39 (40 week ago, 70 year ago), Williston with 33 (33 week ago, 39 year ago) and Marcellus with 29 (29 week ago, 41 year ago).