Number of U.S. active drilling rigs increases this week

Baku, December 24, AZERTAC

The number of active drilling rigs in the United States increased by nine to 1,080 this week, or 149 more than that this time last year, showed weekly data released by Baker Hughes on Friday.

The number of land drilling rigs increased by eight to 1,053 rigs. The number of inland waters drilling rigs stayed level at three rigs, while the number of offshore drilling rigs added one to 24 rigs.

The number of directional drilling rigs decreased by two to 71 rigs. The number of horizontal drilling rigs grew by 13 to 940 rigs, and the number of vertical drilling rigs decreased by two to 69 rigs.

The number of rigs operating in U.S. oil fields increased by 10 to 883 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 decreased by one to 197 rigs this week.

Oil prices extended losses on Friday, sinking further to a record low since January 2016, as worries of oversupply and diminishing demand due to a potential slowdown in global growth were aggravated.

The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery fell 0.29 U.S. dollar to settle at 45.59 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for February delivery fell 0.53 dollar to close at 53.82 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.