Natural gas continued to drive the strong drilling pace in the United States during the first quarter of the year, according to a report by the American Petroleum Institute (API).

Of the 13,497 wells and dry holes completed in the first quarter, natural gas wells accounted for more than half — 7,459 wells, the API said. While natural gas activity was down 1% from year-ago levels, it was nearly double the drilling activity of a decade ago, the producer group reported.

An estimated 4,577 oil wells were completed during the first quarter, up 12% from last year’s comparable period. It was the highest first quarter estimate of oil activity since 1986, the API said.

Total oil well, natural gas well and dry hole activity rose 4% to 13,497 wells during the first three months of the year, it noted.

“Strong oil and natural gas prices continue to encourage more drilling activity, even as federal policy limits access to nonpark land and most of the Outer Continental Shelf for development,” said Hazem Arafa, director of API’s statistic department.

Total estimated exploratory well completions, accounting for nearly 15% of total estimated well completions, rose 37% in the first quarter from the comparable period in 2007, according to the API. Estimated exploratory natural gas wells and dry holes increased 60% and 20%, respectively, during the quarter from year-ago levels, the group said.

API also reported that total estimated drilling footage rose 1% to 79,804,000 during the first quarter from the same period in 2007. This was the highest estimated first-quarter footage ever, it said.

©Copyright 2008Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.