Even though oil prices are easily more than $100 a barrel, American oil and gas exploration companies aren’t jumping whole-hog into expanding their efforts.
Witness the latest rig count issued by Baker Hughes which indicated Friday, Oklahoma’s numbers slipped by 2 to 49 active rigs while nationally, the count was unchanged from a week ago at 650. Canada’s count slipped by 7 to 217 active rigs.
In the U.S., the number of oil rigs fell by 3 to 519 while the number of gas rigs rose by 3 to 130. The nation’s rig count is still 247 higher than a year ago when there were 403 active rigs. The increase in the past year includes 209 more oil rigs and 38 more gas rigs.
Texas remains the site of the most oil and gas drilling where the number of rigs declined by four to 308. New Mexico added four this week to reach 99 while North Dakota was unchanged at 33.
Colorado stayed at 14. The Red Top Rig Report in Kansas showed the number of active rigs remained at 42. Louisiana added 2 to reach 56 while Ohio stayed at 11 rigs and Pennsylvania was unchanged at 25.
West Virginia continued with 11 and Wyoming stayed at 14 rigs.
The oil play activity reflected the same mild interest in new drilling. The Permian Basin added only one rig for a total of 310. The Williston stayed at 34. The Utica was unchanged at 11 rigs.
The Ardmore Woodford fell to no activity with the loss of its only rig while the Arkoma Woodford declined by one, leaving two active rigs. The Cana Woodford was unchanged at 28 rigs.
The D-J Basin stayed at 14 rigs while the Eagle Ford of South Texas was unchanged at 54 rigs. The Granite Wash continued with 3 rigs and the Marcellus stayed at 36. The Mississippi was unchanged with one rig.