The industry’s hunt for natural gas has gone way beyond thesearch for oil and shows no signs of letting up. Gas directeddrilling has held a solid 80% of all U.S. drilling by rotary rigssince mid-July. And last week the number of rotary rigs drillingfor gas leaped to 609 from 579 the week prior, while total rigsrose to 750 from 721, the largest weekly gain since Nov. 28, 1997,according to Baker Hughes. Oil-directed drilling declined duringthe week by one rig to 139.

The number of rigs drilling in the U.S. last year at this timetotaled only 716, with 212 drilling for oil and 504 drilling forgas.

Texas showed the lion’s share of the improvement last week withan increase of 12 rigs to 276, followed by Oklahoma with 10 morerigs drilling for a total of 71, New Mexico with four more for atotal of 45 and Louisiana with one more rig for a total of 149. Therig count in Wyoming dropped by two last week.

The number of rigs drilling in all of North America grew by 51to 1,042, with Canada taking the largest percent increase, 8% (22rigs) compared to 5% in the U.S. A total of 292 rigs are drillingfor gas and oil in Canada.

Rocco Canonica

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