On the losing end: Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. this week declined by 16 to 848. The Houston-based firm says in its weekly report today that 652 rigs were seeking oil and 196 explored for natural gas. A year ago, with oil prices about double the prices now, 1,931 rigs were active. Among major oil- and gas-producing states, Louisiana declined by two to 73 rigs. Only Alaska posted an increase this week, up one. Texas lost nine rigs, Colorado declined by two, and Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming were down one apiece. Arkansas, California, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia all were unchanged. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
Help wanted: Initial unemployment insurance claims filed in Louisiana for the week ending Sept. 5 decreased to 2,417 from the previous week’s total of 2,442. Initial claims were above the comparable figure of 1,961 for the week ending Sept. 6, 2014. The Louisiana Workforce Commission says construction and retail trade sectors had the largest over-the-week decreases, with 29 fewer claims each. Initial claims for mining, which includes oil and gas exploration and extraction workers, increased from 101 to 111. Others working in the oil and gas support services are spread among various sectors. The four-week moving average of initial claims decreased to 2,454 from the previous week’s average of 2,461. The LWC has more details.
Upon further review: A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection finding related to an unplanned reactor shutdown on Dec. 25, 2014, at Entergy’s River Bend nuclear plant in St. Francisville is of “low to moderate safety significance,” the agency announced today. The plant, operated by Entergy Operations, is located in St. Francisville. River Bend was operating at 85% capacity Christmas morning when an unplanned shutdown occurred. Following the shutdown, some problems were experienced with the plant’s feedwater system, which supplies short-term cooling water to the reactor core. Several electrical circuit breakers also failed to operate properly. Operators took compensatory actions to ensure the plant would remain in a safe shutdown mode, says the NRC, which has more details.
