HOUSTON, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States increased by one to 791 this week, down by 256 year on year, according to the weekly data released Friday by Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes.
These active drilling rigs included 679 oil rigs operating in the U.S. oil fields, up by one from the previous week; 110 gas drilling rigs and two miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from last week.
The 791 rigs included 768 land drilling rigs, up by two from the previous week; 22 offshore drilling rigs, down by one, and the only inland waters drilling rig remains unchanged from last week.
Of them, 45 are directional drilling rigs, 714 are horizontal drilling rigs and 32 are vertical drilling rigs.
During the week, the number of drilling rigs increased the most in Alaska by three, to 12 rigs, while Colorado led the lost with two, to 20 rigs.
The number of vertical drilling rigs in the country increased by two, down by 31 rigs year on year, while the number of horizontal rigs increased by one, down by 202 rigs year on year. The only loss this week saw are two directional drilling rigs, and the count of directional drilling rigs in the country was down 23 year on year.
By far, the Permian Basin in western Texas and eastern New Mexico has been the largest source of shale oil production growth in the United States, having become an engine of supply growth outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in the past years.
