The latest rig reports from Baker Hughes Co. shows Oklahoma was unchanged with 12 active rigs in the past week, but nationally, there was an increase of 5 to 266 as the coronavirus continued to have a stranglehold on the oil and gas industry.
A year ago, Oklahoma had 63 active rigs, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused a disastrous plunge in drilling activity as the state has been at only a dozen rigs for several weeks.
Nationally, the past week’s increase included six more oil rigs to reach 189 while the number of gas-drilling rigs dropped by one to 74. The U.S. count is still down 589 from the 855 rigs reported active a year ago. The decline includes 521 oil rigs and 70 gas rigs according to Baker Hughes.
Oklahoma’s count of 12 rigs compares to 113 in Texas where the count was unchanged over the past week. A year ago, there were 414 rigs active in Texas.
Colorado was unchanged over the past week at only 5 rigs compared to 24 a year earlier. Louisiana’s count increased by one to 40, still below the 55 last year. New Mexico saw an increase of three to reach 44 in the past week, far fewer than the 113 last year at this time.
North Dakota gained one rig to reach 10 compared to the 54 a year ago. The Red Top Rig Report published by the Independent Oil and Gas Service showed the rig count in Kansas slipped by three to 7 in the past week. A year ago, Kansas had 37 active rigs.
Wyoming remained at only one rig while a year ago, it had 33.
Of the oil plays, the Permian remained tops with an increase of four to reach 129 active rigs. To give you an idea of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, a year ago, the Permian Basin had 415 rigs.
Oklahoma’s Ardmore Woodford remains without any drilling activity while the Arkoma Woodford stayed at only one rig.
The D-J Basin in Colorado reported four rigs compared to 21 a year ago. The Eagle Ford of South Texas continued with 12 rigs, down from 60 last year.
The Granite Wash in Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle has only one rigs. The Haynesville stayed at 36 while the Marcellus was unchanged with 26 rigs.
The Utica has only 6 active rigs while the Williston added one rig to reach 11, far below the 55 reported one year ago