US rig count declines by 4 in latest week to 1,871

Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. declined by four this week to 1,871.

The Houston firm said Friday in its weekly report that 1,554 rigs were exploring for oil and 315 for gas. Two were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago there were 1,770 active rigs.

Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, North Dakota and Louisiana gained six each, Ohio and Oklahoma were up two apiece and Colorado one.

Texas lost 10 rigs, Alaska was off four, California and New Mexico were down two each and Kansas and Pennsylvania each dropped one.

Arkansas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming were unchanged.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.