Baker Hughes reported little new activity among operators in Permian Basin, Texas and New Mexico in its weekly report of drilling rigs for April 17. There were 289 rigs in Permian Basin (289 week ago, 318 year ago), 274 in Texas (274 week ago, 296 year ago) and 100 in New Mexico (100 week ago, 108 year ago). Ohio and Pennsylvania were the only major producing states to add rigs last week – each was up 2 for the week. The U.S. total of active drilling rigs was 585 – up 2 in the past week and down 34 in the past year.
Only three counties in Permian Basin – Martin, Reeves and Loving – added rigs in the past week. Eddy (51) and Lea (46) in New Mexico remain the basin leaders followed by Martin and Reeves (each with 26), Loving and Midland (each with 21), Upton with 17 and Ward with 10. Midland lost 2 rigs in the past week.
Oklahoma is up 8 in the past year to 53 active rigs, and North Dakota (unchanged in past year with 32 rigs) and Louisiana (down 10 in the past year to 30) also rank among the top five states. Eagle Ford in south Texas ranks second among regions with 47 rigs (unchanged) followed by Williston (unchanged with 33), Haynesville (unchanged with 31) and Marcellus (up 1 to 25).
Permian’s flat count broke a streak of six consecutive weeks of declines in active rig count from 305 to 289.