The U.S. rig count rose by two in the last week to 703 as of Jan. 26, according to Enervus Rig Analytics. The daily count reached as high as 716, compared to a peak of 708 in the prior week. The rig count as of Jan. 26 is up by 1% from a month earlier and up 65% YOY.
The most notable week-over-week change occurred in the Anadarko Basin, where the addition of eight rigs brought the total to 70. There haven’t been this many rigs running in the basin since September 2019, and activity levels fell to as low as nine rigs in September 2020. The Anadarko Basin count is also up by 11 in the last month. Operators that appear to be accelerating their drilling programs include Devon Energy, which added a third rig in the first week of January after running two throughout 2021. After also running two rigs throughout last year, Ovintiv added its third rig this week. Kansas E&P company Palomino Petroleum has ramped to four rigs in 2022 after averaging two in 2021.
