The number of active drilling rigs in the United States decreased by eight to 822 last week, down 245 rigs year-on-year, according to the weekly data released by Baker Hughes on Friday.
According to the Houston-based oilfield services company, these active drilling rigs included 691 oil rigs operating in the U.S. oil fields, down 5 from the previous week; 130 gas drilling rigs, down three from the previous week and the miscellaneous rigs remained at one.
Of the 822 rigs, 799 are land drilling rigs, down eight from the previous week, and 22 offshore drilling rigs, up one.
Of them, 53 are directional drilling rigs, 717 are horizontal drilling rigs and 52 are vertical drilling rigs.
The number of drilling rigs increased the most by two in both states of Louisiana and Utah, to 56 and five rigs, respectively, while Oklahoma lost the most with three to 51 rigs. The drilling rigs in Texas decreased by 2 to 416.
The number of horizontal drilling rigs this week decreased the most by 11, down 212 rigs year-on-year.
By far, the Permian basin has been the largest source of shale oil production growth in the United States, which has become the engine of supply growth outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in the past years.