The number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the world increased in February for the second month in a row, mainly due to Canada, according to the American oil services company Baker Hughes.
On average, 1,813 installations operated worldwide last month compared to 1,784 in January. At the same time, the February level is 108 lower than the figure for the same month in 2023.
In the US, the number of installations in February increased by 2 compared to the previous month and amounted to 623. Meanwhile, in Canada, their number increased by 34 – to 232, which is the maximum over the past year.
The number of rigs in the Middle East over the past month increased by 1 (to 349, the highest level since May 2020), in the Asia-Pacific region – by 5 (to 219). At the same time, in Latin America the indicator decreased by 5 (to 165, the lowest figure since July 2022), in Europe – by 8 (to 114, the minimum for the year). In the Asia-Pacific region, the number of installations remained unchanged at 111.
Baker Hughes has been publishing data on active drilling rigs since 1944. At first, the company collected information only in the USA and Canada, and since 1975 – all over the world. Since June 2019, it has included the number of drilling rigs in Ukraine in its calculations, while no recalculation of aggregate data for Europe for previous periods has been carried out in this regard.
The average monthly number of active oil and gas drilling rigs worldwide increased in 2023 for the third year in a row. The figure rose to 1,814, up from 1,747 in 2022.
The historical maximum in the number of operating drilling rigs was noted in 1981 – 5,624 rigs. The minimum number was recorded in 2020 and was 1,352 installations.
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