US oil rig count falls by just one

The number of oil rigs in the US dropped by one last week while the gas rig count stayed the same, according to Baker Hughes.

Oil rigs fell to 343 by April 23 to cement the plateauing of the recovery in drilling over the last four weeks.

After the oil rig count hit a low of 172 in August last year, the number recovered into the early 300s by the start of February, and then to 337 by the start of April before hitting a year high of 344 by April 16.

The number of gas rigs in the US stayed at 94 by April 23, the same as April 16, and little changed since the start of February when the count has ranged from 90 to 94.

Two years ago, the US oil and gas rig stood at 991.

The number of oil and gas rigs also dropped by one over the week to April 23 to a total of 55, according to Baker Hughes.