In this week's news update, Pennsylvania's DEP increases its inspections of drilling and fracking wells, and the rig count drops again
Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection announced Aug. 28 that is has conducted 1,700 more inspections during the first seven months of the year than it did during the same period last year.
A boost in office staff and a slowdown in drilling because of low oil prices gave the inspectors time to inspect more wells and related records, data from the department shows. New wells require more inspections during drilling and fracking.
According to the findings, shale gas operations had only 205 violations through July, down from 283 through the same period last year, despite a nearly 16 percent increase in inspections.
Rig Count Drops by 8
The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. fell by eight to 877 in data released Aug. 28 by Baker Hughes.
The Houston-based oilfield services company says 675 rigs were seeking oil and 202 for natural gas. A year ago 1,914 rigs were active.
Texas was the only state to gain last week, increasing by three rigs. Louisiana suffered the most losses with six, while New Mexico was down by two. Colorado, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania each decreased by one.
Alaska, Arkansas, California, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming were all unchanged.
Comments