HOUSTON, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States stood at 779 this week, unchanged from the previous week and up by 193 from this time last year, according to the weekly data released Friday by Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes.
These active drilling rigs included 621 oil rigs operating in U.S. oil fields, down by one from the previous week, 156 gas rigs, up by one from last week, and two miscellaneous rigs, the same as last week.
The rigs included 762 land drilling rigs, two inland water drilling rigs, and 15 offshore drilling rigs.
Of them, 46 were directional drilling rigs, 706 were horizontal drilling rigs and 27 were vertical drilling rigs.
So 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.
