The Number of Drilling Rigs in the World in May Fell the Third Month in a Row
The number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the world in May decreased at the end of the third month in a row, according to the American oilfield company Baker Hughes.
On average, last month, 1675 installations against 1726 in April worked in the world. At the same time, the May level is 107 below the indicator for the same month of 2023.
In the United States, the number of installations in May decreased by 15 relative to the previous month and amounted to 602. In Canada, their number decreased by 11 – to 120.
The number of drill rigs in the Middle East over the past month decreased by 2 (up to 341), in Africa – by 6 (up to 106), in the Asia -Pacific – by 11 (up to 226), in Latin America – at 9 (up to 157). Moreover, in Europe, their number increased by 3 (up to 123).
Baker Hughes has been publishing data on existing drilling rigs since 1944. At first, the company collected information only in the USA and Canada, since 1975 – around the world. Since June 2019, it includes in its calculations the number of drillers in Ukraine, while recalculating the summary data on Europe for past periods was not carried out in this regard.
The average monthly number of operating oil and gas drilling rigs in the world in 2023 increased after the third year in a row. The indicator rose to 1814 compared to 1747 in 2022.
The historical maximum in the number of working drilling rigs was marked in 1981 – 5624 installations. The minimum amount was recorded in 2020 and amounted to 1352 installations.
