HOUSTON, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States increased by five this week to 1,052, or 100 more than that this time last year, showed weekly data collected by Baker Hughes released Friday.
The Houston-based oilfield services company reported that the five added rigs were all in oil drilling, bringing the count of oil drilling rigs to stand at 863.
More than half of them are situated in the Permian Basin region of West Texas and New Mexico. There are exactly 187 gas-seeking rigs and two miscellaneous rigs.
Baker Hughes reported a fall of five active rigs in the previous week.
Oil benchmarks went in different directions again on Friday afternoon. The West Texas Intermediate for August delivery rose 0.86 U.S. dollar to settle at 73.80 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for September delivery fell 0.28 dollar to close at 77.11 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Analysts attributed Friday's rally of U.S. oil price to a "short covering situation" from Thursday's decline. U.S. crude futures fell on Thursday as official data showed the country's oil inventories rose unexpectedly last week.
Meanwhile, Brent oil price was under pressure on Friday amid an escalating global trade tension and increased production by Saudi Arabia and Russia.