U.S. continues to rebound from declining counts of active oil and gas drilling rigs. Houston-based Baker Hughes said in its Oct. 2 report U.S. added rigs for the third straight week and fourth time in the last five weeks. There were 266 rigs in U.S. (up 5 in past week), 129 rigs in Permian (up 4), 113 rigs in Texas (unchanged) and 44 in New Mexico (up 3). During 2020Q3, U.S. lost 4 rigs, Permian lost 6, Texas added 1, and New Mexico idled 9.
Eddy County, N.M., idled 2 rigs last week, but remains the Permian leader with 24, and Lea County, N.M., added 1 rig for a total of 20 as of Oct. 2. Martin County was unchanged with 18, and Midland County lost 1 rig for a count of 17.
Rig counts in other leading states as of Oct. 2, according to Baker Hughes, were Louisiana with 40 (39 last week), Pennsylvania with 19 (unchanged), Oklahoma with 12 (unchanged) and North Dakota with 10 (9 last week). Haynesville remains runner-up among regions with 36 rigs (unchanged in last week) followed by Marcellus with 26 (unchanged), Eagle Ford with 12 (unchanged) and Williston with 11 (10 last week).
Most of the eight largest domestic basins gained rigs in the past week, SP Global Platts said Oct. 1. No region lost rigs. Platts analyst Matt Andre said, “Every basin is up because operators were bottomed out.” Tudor Pickering Holt analyst Taylor Zurcher added, “All these North American and U.S. operators are getting ready for 2021. They’re setting their budgets next year at maintenance level – meaning they’ll try to hold their 2020 exit production levels flat over the course of 2021. So it’s a matter of what rig count these guys need to keep their year-end 2020 production flat next year.”