HOUSTON – Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose by eight this week to 1,785.
The Houston firm said in its weekly report Friday that 1,422 rigs were exploring for oil and 358 for gas. Five were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago there were 1,764 active rigs.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Louisiana and Texas each gained three rigs, Ohio was up two and Alaska and New Mexico rose by one apiece.
Oklahoma was down by two and Kansas by one. Arkansas, California, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming were all unchanged.
The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
