The number of oil and gas drilling rigs in the world in August fell for the first time in 3 months

According to the oilfield services company Baker Hughes, in August 2023, the number of operating oil and gas drilling rigs in the world decreased for the first time in three months.

On average, 1,788 installations were operating in the world last month, in July this figure was at the level of 1,820 units. At the same time, the August level is 37 units lower than the indicator for the same month of 2022.

In the US, the number of installations decreased by 26 compared to July and amounted to 647, which is the lowest since February 2022. In Canada, the number of installations increased by 3, reaching 189 units. Thus, in August, North America accounted for 46.8% of working drilling rigs, which is slightly lower than in July (47.2%) and significantly lower compared to last year (52.9%).

In Europe, the number of drilling rigs decreased by 3 – to 121, in Latin America – by 4, to 173, in the Asia-Pacific region – by 4, to 220, and in the Middle East – by 5, to 329 units.

In Africa, the indicator increased by 7 and reached the number of 109 installations, which is the highest since February 2020.

Baker Hughes has been collecting data on operating drilling rigs since 1944. The historical maximum was recorded in 1981 – 5,624 installations, and the minimum – in 2020, when there were only 1,352.