HOUSTON, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States stayed flat this week, showed weekly data released by Baker Hughes on Friday.
The Houston-based oilfield services company reported that the U.S. count remained at 1,057 drilling rigs, with offshore gaining one rig and onshore losing a rig.
The state of Texas gained three rigs and increased its overall rig count to 525, offset a three rig loss in New Mexico state, which fell to 104 drilling rigs, showed the figure. More than half of the U.S. oil rigs were located in the Permian Basin region of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
Oil prices continued to rise slightly on Friday after slumping over 2 percent earlier this week.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery rose 0.45 U.S. dollar to settle at 65.91 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for October delivery rose 0.40 dollar to close at 71.83 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
