North American Rig Count Up

The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in North America rose by 23 during the week ending October 20, because of a gain of 14 in Canada and helped by an increase of nine in the United States, according to oil services firm Baker Hughes Inc. The number of rigs operating in the United States rose by nine to 1054 compared to 750 a year ago, while the number of rigs in Canada rose by 14 to 352, compared with last year's 292, according to Baker Hughes. In the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the number of rigs searching for oil and gas rose by 10 to 147. The number of U.S. rigs searching for gas rose by eight to 844, while the number of rigs searching for oil rose by one to 210. There were no miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from last week. The number of U.S. rigs exploring on land reached 889, while the number of rigs operating offshore rose by 10 to 151. The number of rigs in inland water fell by two to 14. There were 237 U.S. rigs exploring directionally, up 12; 63 exploring horizontally, up four; and 754 exploring vertically, down seven. The states with the largest changes in their rig count were Oklahoma, which fell by seven to 123, and Louisiana, which rose seven to 213.