Drilling Rig Count by State 2026
Drilling Rigs
State | Drilling Rigs 2026↓ | |
|---|---|---|
 | Texas | 255 |
 | New Mexico | 93 |
 | Oklahoma | 45 |
 | Louisiana | 39 |
 | North Dakota | 26 |
 | Pennsylvania | 17 |
 | Wyoming | 16 |
 | Utah | 13 |
 | Alaska | 12 |
 | Colorado | 11 |
 | Ohio | 11 |
 | West Virginia | 8 |
 | California | 7 |
 | Montana | 2 |
 | United States | 555 |
A drilling rig is an apparatus constructed for oil drilling. The term “rig” generally refers to the equipment used to penetrate the Earth’s crust.
Oil and natural gas drilling rigs are used to identify geologic reservoirs and create holes to extract oil or natural gas from those reservoirs. Onshore oil and gas fields typically have a larger rig that drills a well, which is then replaced with a smaller service rig that gets the well online.
On June 19, 2020, the number of active rigs was 266, the lowest since the Bakers Hughes Company started collecting data in 1987. Since then, the number of rigs has grown quite a bit. As of mid-2023, the number of rigs totals approximately 740.
The breakdown of rigs by state is as follows: As you can see, Texas has by far the most rigs in the country. Rigs are also in clusters of states showing where oil and natural gas are located geographically.
