There were 282 offshore drilling rigs actively exploring for or developing oil or natural gas worldwide in December 2019.
This is an increase of 22 offshore drilling rigs compared to December 2018, according to Baker Hughes' weekly rig count report issued earlier this week.
Africa was the region that contributed most to the increase for December 2019, compared to December 2018.
Namely, there were 28 offshore rigs active in Africa in December 2019, almost doubling the December 2018 number when there were only 15 offshore rigs operating in Africa.
Latin America added 10 rigs vs December 2018, with 37 offshore rigs operating in December 2019. Europe had 39 active offshore rigs last month, and increase compared to 38 the previous year.
The Middle East had 59, up from the previous year's 56. The U.S. had 23 active offshore rigs in December 2019, on down from December 2019, while Canada offshore rig count remained flat with two active offshore rigs in December.
The Asia Pacific was again the leader with the total number of active offshore rigs, despite a slight drop in December 2019. The region last month had 94 active offshore drilling units, a decrease of 4 rigs compared to December 2018.
The number of worldwide active rigs overall fell by around 200 units to 2,043 in December 2019, dragged down by a decrease in the land rig count, mostly in the U.S.
See the full Baker Hughes rig count chart below.