HOUSTON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States decreased by two to 1,053 this week, or 118 more than that this time last year, showed weekly data released by Baker Hughes on Friday.
The Houston-based oilfield services company reported that the U.S. state of Texas led the gain with increasing by six rigs, while Oklahoma decreased the most by three.
The number of rigs operating in U.S. oil fields declined by one to a total of 866 rigs this week, and more than half of the oil rigs were located in the Permian Basin region of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The number of rigs drilling for gas remained level at 186 this week. The count of miscellaneous rigs decreased by one.
U.S. oil prices gained 0.65 percent Friday ahead of meeting of Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) with Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its partners in Algiers scheduled on the coming Sunday.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for November delivery grew 0.46 U.S. dollar to settle at 70.78 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday. Meanwhile, Brent oil for November delivery inched up 0.13 percent to 78.8 dollars per barrel.
