HOUSTON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States decreased by one to 1,075 this week, or 144 more than that this time last year, showed weekly data released by Baker Hughes on Friday.
The latest count of land drilling rigs decreased by one to 1,050 rigs. The number of offshore drilling rigs and inland waters rigs both stayed level at 23 and two, respectively.
The number of directional drilling rigs increased by four to 72 rigs. The number of horizontal drilling rigs fell by one to 933 rigs, and the number of vertical drilling rigs decreased by four to 70 rigs.
The Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that the U.S. state of New Mexico led the gain with an increase of two to 110 rigs, while the state of Texas fell by two to 529 rigs.
The number of rigs operating in U.S. oil fields decreased by 10 to 877 rigs in the 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 increased by nine to 198 rigs this week.
Oil prices rebounded on Friday, after OPEC and its allies including Russia have agreed to cut production next year to shore up falling oil prices
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for January delivery was up 1.12 U.S. dollars to settle at 52.61 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for January delivery rose 1.61 dollars to close at 61.67 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
