HOUSTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States stayed the same at 799 in the week ending Friday, down by 272 rigs year-on-year, according to weekly data released by Baker Hughes on Friday.
According to the Houston-based oilfield services company, these active drilling rigs included 667 oil rigs operating in the U.S. oil fields, up by four from the previous week, and 129 gas drilling rigs, down by four from the previous week, and three miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from last week.
Of the 799 rigs, 776 are land drilling rigs, down by one from the previous week, 23 offshore drilling rigs, up by one, and inland waters drilling rigs remained at zero.
Of them, 52 are directional drilling rigs, 693 are horizontal drilling rigs and 54 are vertical drilling rigs.
During the week, the number of drilling rigs increased the most in West Virginia by three, to 16 rigs, and both Kansas and Pennsylvania saw an increase of one. The state of Ohio and Wyoming lost two, to 11 and 27 rigs, respectively.
The number of horizontal drilling rigs in the country decreased by two, down by 234 rigs year-on-year, while the number of vertical rigs increased by two, down by 17 rigs year-on-year.
By far, the Permian Basin in western Texas and eastern New Mexico State has been the largest source of shale oil production growth in the United States, which has become an engine of supply growth outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in the past years.
