By Trend

The number of active drilling rigs in the United States fell by six to 898 this week, 150 rigs down year on year, according to the weekly data released by Baker Hughes on Friday, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

According to the Houston-based oilfield services company, these active drilling rigs included 738 oil rigs operating in the U.S. oil fields, down 4 from the previous week; 160 gas drilling rigs, down 2 from the previous week.

Of the 898 rigs, 870 are land drilling ones, down six, and 28 offshore drilling ones, remaining level as last week.

Of them, 67 are directional drilling rigs, 783 are horizontal drilling rigs and 48 are vertical drilling rigs.

The number of drilling rigs increased the most by three to 54 rigs in the state of North Dakota, while Oklahoma lost the most with five to 75 rigs. Texas lost three to 438 rigs.

Oil prices rose on Friday, as the market was buoyed by the latest positive signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the drop in U.S. oil rig count.

The West Texas Intermediate for October delivery increased 0.22 U.S. dollar to settle at 56.52 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for November delivery rose 0.59 dollar to close at 61.54 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.