Trickling down: Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in Louisiana declined by one this week to 72. The U.S. rig count, meanwhile, increased by one this week to 863. Houston-based Baker Hughes announced today that 645 rigs were seeking oil and 217 explored for natural gas. One was listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, 1,875 rigs were active. Among major oil- and gas-producing states, Texas gained five rigs, New Mexico rose by four and California, Colorado and Ohio each gained one. North Dakota lost six rigs, Kansas and Pennsylvania each decreased by two and Utah and West Virginia each lost one. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
Breaking even: Initial unemployment insurance claims in Louisiana for the week ending July 4 remained the same from the previous week’s total of 2,707, the Louisiana Workforce Commission announced today. However, initial claims were above the comparable figure of 2,301 for the week ending July 5, 2014. Construction had the largest decrease in initial claims, followed by administrative and waste services. Initial claims for mining, which includes oil and gas exploration and extraction workers, also decreased to 88 from 94 from the previous week. Others working in the oil and gas support services are spread among various sectors. The four-week moving average of initial claims decreased to 2,758 from the previous week’s average of 2,924. The LWC has more details.
Staying put: A federal judge has ruled that Tom Benson’s lawsuit seeking to cut his daughter and grandchildren out of ownership in the Saints and Pelicans franchises will continue in New Orleans. The Associated Press reports U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo denied a motion Thursday to dismiss the case filed by a trustee overseeing a group of Benson family trusts. The 87-year-old Benson wants to remove stock in the teams from trust funds created for his daughter Renee Benson and grandchildren Rita and Ryan LeBlanc. He has also asked the court to force trustee Robert Rosenthal to sign off on the change. Lawyers representing Rosenthal had argued that the federal court in New Orleans did not have jurisdiction in a case involving trusts and businesses founded in Texas.
