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Drilling rig numbers down by about half in just one month

Most of the fleet now laid down
Trinidad yard Carlyle
All of Trinidad Drilling's former CanElson fleet in Saskatchewan is currently racked. This is their yard in Carlyle on Sept. 6.

Estevan – In the space of a month, Saskatchewan’s already bad active drilling numbers fell by about half.

Saskatchewan's rig count has fallen to just 19 active rigs as of Sept. 8, according to sister publication Rig Locator.(www.riglocator.ca.). Three of those rigs, Ensign Rig 644 & 689; Stampede Rig 1, are drilling for potash, leaving just 16 drilling for oil. That number may even be lower, as the map function may not have caught up to the overall rig count number for Saskatchewan, which is showing 17 active rigs.

In southeast Saskatchewan, the number of rigs drilling for oil has dropped to just eight, as Crescent Point's drilling activity has slowed down tremendously. In southwest Saskatchewan, where Crescent Point is the dominant operator, there are currently no rigs working at all.

Seven rigs are active in the Kindersley area. Just one rig remains active in the Lloydminster area.

All 13 former CanElson Rigs, now part of Trinidad Drilling as of Aug. 11, are reported as down, according to Trinidad Drilling. Similarly, all Advance, Akita, Alliance, Crusader, Lasso, Nabors, Quinn, Quintera, Red Dog, Tempco, Vortex and Xtreme drilling rigs reported in Saskatchewan were also listed as down, according to Rig Locator.

On Aug. 11, 2015 Saskatchewan had 37 drilling rigs working, including two for potash. On Sept. 6, 2014, there were 80 rigs working in Saskatchewan. On the same date in 2013 it was 69.