US rig count down by nine, Canadian rig count down by 31

Rig count drops below 100 in Canada

The rig count in Canada continued to drop last week. There are currently under 100 gas and oil rigs operational north of the border. Nexen photo.

HOUSTON _ Baker Hughes released its weekly rig count on Friday, which shows the decline in rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States and Canada continues.

In the US, during the week ending on Mar. 11, the rig count was down by nine, to a total of 480 rigs operational.  This is the tenth week the number of oil and gas rigs in the US dropped.  There were six fewer oil rigs operational, dropping from 396 to 386 and three less gas rigs up and running, from 97 to 94.

In the US, the state that saw the largest drop in its rig count was Texas where 12 fewer rigs were operational.  Oklahoma was down by three rigs while New Mexico reported two fewer rigs.  North Dakota and Ohio both had one less rig while Alaska, Colorado, West Virginia and Wyoming all remained steady.

States that gained one rig were California and Utah.  Kansas is up by two rigs and Louisiana and Pennsylvania both showed three more operational rigs.

The number of oil and gas rigs in Canada dropped significantly during the week ending Friday.  There were 22 fewer oil rigs, bringing the total of oil rigs from 50 to 28 and 9 less gas rigs, dropping that number to 70.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.