US oil, gas rig count drops 13 to 706 on week, as Permian Basin losses mount: Enverus

The US oil and gas rig count fell by 13 to 706 on the week, energy analytics and software company Enverus said Dec. 30, as the Permian Basin recorded by far the biggest decline — and biggest move — of any of the eight largest domestic plays.

Overall, the drop in the total rig count came from crude plays where rigs fell by 14 on the week to 552. Rigs working in gas plays rose by one to 168.

Rigs in the Permian, sited in West Texas/southeast New Mexico, fell by five to 300, on top of a one-rig dip the previous week. But generally, the basin — the largest in the US with 4.88 million b/d of current oil production and about 14.3 Bcf/d of natural gas output — had been gaining rigs from a level of 260 in mid-September.

Permian drilling activity has risen 70% in 2021, after starting the year at 176 rigs.

Moreover, the Haynesville Shale of East Texas/northwest Louisiana rose by two rigs to 63 — the highest activity level in the largely dry gas play since late April 2019. The past week's 63 rigs were also well above Haynesville's pre-coronavirus level of 42 in late February 2020.

Rigs at the Haynesville Shale generally stayed in the 30s-40s through the first year of the coronavirus pandemic and began to rise in the second quarter of 2021, in tandem with natural gas prices.

A mix of small gains, losses

Otherwise, the US rig count for the week ended Dec. 29 was a hodgepodge of upticks and downticks by a rig or two.

Rigs in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota/Montana also rose by two to 32. Bakken activity had dropped sharply as the pandemic hit in March 2020 from levels in the low 50s.

Bakken activity began 2021 at only 12 rigs, then picked up from there. Recovery was slow as severe winter storms hit the region, and by mid-year, the large oil play's rig count only topped 20, but activity has continued to increase since then.

The SCOOP-STACK play in Oklahoma rose by a rig for the week ended Dec. 29, for a total of 39. Rigs in the play have bounced around the high 30s to low 40s since October, after starting 2021 at 15.

But that means the SCOOP-STACK is back to its pre-pandemic level of 42. The two names are acronyms of the names of the counties and areas in which they are located.

Apart from the Permian, only one other basin posted a rig loss during the week ended Dec. 29 — the DJ Basin, mostly located in Colorado. It fell by one rig for the week ended Dec. 29, leaving 17. The DJ's pre-pandemic level was 25, but it hasn't been above 20 since April 2020.

In three other US basins during the same week, activity was stagnant with no weekly net change in rigs. That left the Eagle Ford Shale, sited in South Texas, at 57 rigs, the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania/West Virginia at 37, and the Utica Shale at 10.