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U.S. Oil Drilling Inches Up As Prices Fall

By Julianne Geiger - Oct 02, 2026

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US falling to 598, up 49 from this same time last year.

The number of active oil rigs rose by 1, reaching 456 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 34 above this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2 to 133, which is 15 more than this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 9.

The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production rose during week ending September 25. US crude oil production averaged 13.955 million bpd during the reporting period, up from 13.939 million bpd last week but up 450,000 bpd from a year ago.