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

HOUSTON, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States decreased to 748 this week, three less than the previous week, but 55 more than last year, a Houston-based oilfield services company said Friday.

Of the active drilling rigs, 588 were oil rigs operating in oil fields, a decrease of two from the previous week. There were also 157 gas drilling rigs, which is down by one from last week, and three miscellaneous rigs, which remained unchanged from the previous week, according to the weekly data released by Baker Hughes.

The rigs included 727 land drilling rigs, one inland water rig, and 20 offshore drilling rigs.

Among them, 683 are horizontal drilling rigs and 19 are vertical drilling rigs, and 46 are directional drilling rigs.

So far, the Permian Basin located in western Texas and eastern New Mexico has been the largest source of shale oil production growth in the United States.

It has become an engine of supply growth outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the past years.