The US oil and natural gas rig count edged up by three to 604 last week, as drillers idled one oil rig and added four gas rigs, Baker Hughes reported. However, as the backlog of drilled but uncompleted wells is consumed, "rig activity across the five largest U.S. oil plays would need to increase by (about) 12 weekly over next eight weeks to reach a sustainable plateau to hold current oil volumes in 2022," analysts at Mizuho said.

The increasing number of satellites and their new technologies are providing detailed data and images from volcanic eruptions, including the explosive Jan. 15 outburst of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano off Tonga's coast in the southern Pacific, researchers say. The satellites help scientists observe activity such as the scale of eruptions in remote areas, the spread of volcanic ash and changes in terrain.

Oil production in Argentina last month reached the highest level since October 2012 as output jumped in the Vaca Muerta shale formation, officials said. The country produced 559,000 barrels of oil per day and 129 million cubic meters of natural gas per day in December.

The US produced 77.14 quadrillion British thermal units of fossil fuels in 2021, up 2% from 2020, and volumes are on track to hit a fresh record in 2023 as the upward momentum is sustained, according to the Energy Information Administration. US dry gas, crude oil and natural gas plant liquids production is expected to increase by 2%, 5% and 4%, respectively, in 2023, after anticipated gains of 3%, 6% and 9% in 2022.

Images taken since 2006 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show boulder tracks that may indicate rockfalls caused by recent seismic activity on Mars, researchers say. About a third of the 4,500 tracks were formed in the last 16 years, based on scientists' review of images.

Oman's Samail Ophiolite, a piece of oceanic crust and mantle that resulted from ancient obduction, likely formed between 77 million and 81 million years ago, according to a new study, which disputes previous estimates of 110 million years ago. Scientists used radiometric dating to determine the age of garnet, zircon and rutile crystals in continental metamorphic rocks from an Omani beach.

Saturn's moon Mimas may be hiding an ocean underneath its thick, icy surface, a study in Icarus suggests. Researchers created a model to see what might be causing the moon's unusual wobble, and it showed that a subsurface ocean under about 23 to 32 kilometers of ice could be the reason.

The call for abstracts has opened for IMAGE '22, and the deadline for submissions is slightly earlier than in years past due to the meeting itself being earlier. Abstract submissions this year will be due March 17. This will be the second meeting of IMAGE, the combined annual convention of SEG and AAPG, in conjunction with the Society for Sedimentary Geology. Learn more.

Now through Feb. 14, SEG members and nonmembers alike can save 50% on "Methods and Applications in Reservoir Geophysics." The book demonstrates the value of geophysics in reservoir management and shows how to apply geophysical technologies more effectively in reservoir studies. The book includes more than 40 papers gathered from SEG and other journals and 13 new contributions. Learn more.