Slight Increase In U.S. Rigs

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

July 22, 2011 | 3:05 PM

A Bradford County drilling pad

Some national context for Pennsylvania’s drilling boom, as we continue to sift through today’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission report.
Via the AP:

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose by 11 this week to 1,916.
Houston-based drilling product provider Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday that 1,021 rigs were exploring for oil and 889 for natural gas. Six were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago this week the rig count stood at 1,585.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, North Dakota gained four rigs, Texas increased by three, Oklahoma added two and Colorado, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia each gained one. Alaska decreased by four rigs while California lost one. Arkansas, Wyoming and New Mexico remained unchanged.
The rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. A low of 488 was recorded in 1999.