HOUSTON, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States decreased by 5 to 258 this week, down by 700 year on year, according to the weekly data released Friday by Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes.

These active drilling rigs included 181 oil rigs operating in the U.S. oil fields, down by four from the previous week; 75 gas drilling rigs, down by one from the previous week, and two miscellaneous rigs, unchanged from last week.

The 258 rigs included 246 land drilling rigs, down by five from the previous week, and 12 offshore drilling rigs, unchanged from the previous week. There was no inland waters drilling rig this week, same as last week.

Of them, 19 were directional drilling rigs, 220 were horizontal drilling rigs and 19 were vertical drilling rigs.

During the week, the number of drilling rigs decreased the most by five in the state of Texas to 107 rigs.

By far, the Permian Basin in western Texas and eastern New Mexico has been the largest source of shale oil production growth in the United States, having become an engine of supply growth outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in the past years.

The United States became a world important oil producer in the past years with the help of its shale oil production growth. Meanwhile, China continues to be one of the biggest oil consumers of the world.

According to the latest release from China's National Bureau of Statistics, the country's crude oil production in May reached 16.46 million tonnes, an increase of 1.3 percent from the same month last year. China imported 47.97 million tonnes of crude oil in May, up 19.2 percent from May last year. Enditem

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