HOUSTON, July 19 (UPI) -- Oil services company Baker Hughes said Friday onshore drilling in shale reserve areas in the United States was more efficient than ever.
Baker Hughes said Friday it launched a quarterly assessment of drilling activity in the United States. Its well count index would provide an assessment of oil and natural gas activity onshore in the United States.
"In the past couple of years, a number of new technologies have been introduced that are purpose-built for drilling and producing from shale," Baker Hughes Chairman Martin Craighead said in a statement. "When we compare well count and rig count data side-by-side, we can see that efficiencies in the U.S. are improving and that drilling rigs in some basins are drilling wells faster."
For the second quarter of the year, Baker Hughes counted 8,800 new wells in service in the United States. More than 3,000 of those new wells came from the Permian and Eagle Ford basins spread across southern states.
Overall, however, the company said the number of new wells in the first quarter of 2013 was 8.1 percent less than a year ago but a modest increase from the previous quarter.
Baker Hughes said it would publish new well counts on the second Friday of January, April, July and October.
