HOUSTON, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States decreased by three to 488 rigs this week, up by 237 year on year, according to the weekly data released Friday by Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes.

These active drilling rigs included 385 oil rigs operating in the U.S. oil fields, down by two from the previous week; 103 gas drilling rigs, down by one from last week. There were no miscellaneous rigs, same as last week.

The 488 rigs included 473 land drilling rigs and one inland water rig, both same as last week. There were 14 offshore drilling rigs, down by three from last week.

Of them, 29 are directional drilling rigs, 442 are horizontal drilling rigs and 17 are vertical drilling rigs.

During the week, Louisiana was the state losing the most rigs. It lost four rigs to reach 48 in total.

So 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 has become a major 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 the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, China's crude oil output grew 2.8 percent year on year to 16.67 million tonnes in June. China imported 40.14 million tonnes of crude oil in June, down 24.5 percent year on year. Enditem

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