The U.S. rig count dropped by 67 last week as upstreams curb activity amid low oil prices.
Houston-based Baker Hughes said the number of U.S. oil rigs dropped to 866 during the week ending on March 13, a 56 rig loss from the previous week.
The U.S. also shed 11 natural gas wells last week bringing the current gas rig count to 257.
The combined oil an gas rig count dropped by 67 to 1,125 rigs, down 38.7 percent from the same period last year.
Texas shed 37 rigs last week bringing its total rig count to 501, down from 868 rigs a year ago.
The average U.S. rig count during February was 1,348, a 335 rig dropp from January and down 421 rigs from February 2014.
Last week’s decline marks the fourteenth straight week that U.S. rig counts have dropped.
Despite the rig count drop U.S. production and crude stores hover near record highs.
Earlier this month U.S. Energy Information Association estimated that U.S. production hit 9.4 million barrels a day while crude inventories hit an 80 year high of 448.9 million barrels, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
