Texas was the only major producing state to report a decline in count of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the past week, according to Baker Hughes. As of July 16, there were 222 rigs in Texas (224 week ago, 104 year ago), 238 rigs in Permian Basin (237 week ago, 124 year ago), 75 rigs in New Mexico (75 week ago, 50 year ago) and 484 rigs in U.S. (479 week ago, 253 year ago). It was the third straight week for the U.S. count to grow and fifth time in last six weeks from 456 rigs as of June 4 (up 6.1 percent).
Two most active counties in Permian Basin, Lea, N.M., and Midland, lost rigs in the past week. Lea was down 2 rigs to 45, and Midland lost 4 to 34. Other leaders include Eddy, N.M., up 2 to 29 rigs; Reeves, up 2 to 28; Martin, up 3 to 21; Loving, down 3 to 15, Howard, unchanged at 13; and Upton, down 1 to 12.
Haynesville remains No. 2 among regions in rig count as of July 16 with 49 followed by Eagle Ford with 32, Marcellus with 28 and Williston with 18. Louisiana remains No. 3 among states with 54 followed by Oklahoma with 29, and Pennsylvania and North Dakota with 18 each.
Industry leaders have vowed to pay down debt and increase dividends rather than boost production. Analyst Louise Dickson of Rystad Energy told Houston Chronicle, “U.S. shale producers seem reluctant to invest and increase their own production sufficiently to plug the supply deficit both because of the time it takes from a price signal to peak production and also hedging constraints for public producers. If the U.S. shale industry was to respond to higher prices and work on increasing its output, the production boost wouldn’t materialize until 2022.”