U.S. rig count drops as oil price holds steady

HOUSTON, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. rig count fell five this week, while oil prices stood comfortably over 61 U.S. dollars a barrel, according to weekly data collected by Baker Hughes released on Friday.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes, a GE company, reported that the number of oil rigs in U.S. fields fell to 742, while gas rigs flat-lined at 182. The total slipped to 924, 34 off its recent peak of 958, at the end of July, 2017.

Still, the count is up 259 over this time last year, with oil rigs rising by 213, gas 47, and miscellaneous rigs down one.

The U.S. offshore count is down one since last week to 17, a drop of seven year-over-year.

Louisiana lost six rigs, Oklahoma two and North Dakota one. Wyoming gained two rigs, New Mexico and Texas one each.

The price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the U.S. benchmark for the price of oil, has skipped above 62 dollars a barrel this week. By Friday afternoon, the price had fallen to 61.49 dollars, a drop of 52 cents or 0.84 percent following the announcement, by ExxonMobil Corporation, of a sixth oil discovery offshore Guyana since 2015. Enditem