Baker Hughes released its weekly count of operating oil and natural gas drilling rigs today instead of on its normal Friday schedule because financial markets are closed tomorrow for Good Friday.
The count showed a total drop of 10 rigs to 1012 with 8 fewer oil rigs in operation and 2 fewer natural gas rigs.
This is the seventh weekly decline in working rigs in the last nine weeks.
U.S. oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate closed up 0.39% today to $64.01 a barrel. International benchmark Brent crude gained 0.46% to $71.95 a barrel.Yesterday oil prices dipped as the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. oil inventories declined by 1.4 million barrels. That was a smaller drop in inventories than had been expected.
