The number of oil and gas drilling rigs worldwide increased in February on a monthly basis by 87 units, or 7.3 percent, to 1,270 units, according to data from the US oil and gas services company Baker Hughes, Report informs, referring to Prime.
In annual terms the number of operating drilling rigs fell by 855, or 1.7 times.
In the US, according to the company, the indicator in monthly terms increased by 29, or 8 percent, and amounted to 398 units, in Canada it increased by 34, or almost 25 percent, to 171 units.
The number of drilling rigs in Europe increased by 4 to 98 units, in the Middle East the figure grew by 9 to 260.
In the Asia-Pacific region (APR), the number of rigs decreased by 1, to 161, in Africa, it increased by 6, to 57. In Latin America, the figure also increased by 6, to 125 rigs.
Baker Hughes provides weekly data on the number of rigs in the US and Canada since 1944. Since 1975, the service company has been publishing the number of rigs around the world every month.