US drilling activity fell with 622 rotary rigs working this week, officials at Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.
That's 7 fewer than the previous week and down from 746 during the same period last year.
The number of land rigs working this week was down 7 to 601; offshore rigs remained unchanged at 21; and the number of active inland water units remained at 0.
Of the rigs working, 504 were drilling for oil, down 2 from the previous week. Another 115 were drilling for natural gas, down 4, and three were unclassified, down 1 from the previous week.
There were 52 rigs doing directional drilling in the US this week, unchanged from last week. Horizontal drilling rigs were down 4 units this week to 557.
Texas led the decline. The rig count in the state was down 8 to 291 rigs working. There were 43 rigs working in Louisiana, 2 fewer than the previous week.
Those declines were partially offset by the increase of 3 units in the New Mexico rig count to 106.
There were 225 rotary rigs drilling in Canada this week, a decrease of 6 from the previous week but up slightly from 223 last year.