U.S. Rig Count Drops For Third Straight Week

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 5, 2012 | 1:06 PM

The number of active natural gas rigs dropped for the third week in a row, according to a report on Nasdaq’s website:

Weekly Summary: Rigs engaged in exploration and production in the U.S. totaled 1,959 for the week ended June 29, 2012. This was down by 7 from the previous week’s count and represents the third decrease in as many weeks.
Despite this, the current nationwide rig count is more than double that of the 6-year low of 876 (in the week ended June 12, 2009) and comfortably exceeds the prior-year level of 1,886. It rose to a 22-year high in 2008, peaking at 2,031 in the weeks ending August 29 and September 12.
Rigs engaged in land operations descended by 7 to 1,893, while inland waters activity and offshore drilling remained steady at 18 and 48 rigs, respectively.