The number of active oil and natural gas drilling rigs in the United States dropped by 64 rigs in the last week, according to the April 3 rig count from Baker Hughes, the Texas-based well services company.

The number of rigs active in Canada declined by 13 to 41 rigs. That total is a drop of 27 from a year ago.

The closely watched report is a good indicator of future drilling activities, according to observers.

It was the third straight week with declining rig counts and the drop is the largest in five years from March 2015. The count is the lowest rig total since January 2017, Kallanish Energy reports.

Baker Hughes reported there were 664 rigs in the U.S., down 64 from March 27. That total is down 361 from a year earlier.

That total included 562 oil rigs, 100 gas rigs and two miscellaneous rigs, as of April 3.

The oil rig count is a drop of 62 from a week earlier. That total is down 269 from a year ago.

The gas rig total is down two rigs from a week ago and down 94 from a year ago.

The miscellaneous rig count is the same as last week.

The number of rigs in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico dropped by 31 to 351 rigs, as of April 3, Baker Hughes said.

That is the No. 1 drilling area in the United States.

In the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, the number of rigs dropped by six to 57, the report said.

The number of rigs in Oklahoma declined by 10 and dropped by nine in New Mexico.

The Oklahoma count went from 39 to 29, while the New Mexico count declined by nine from 109 to 100.

The number of rigs in Texas dropped by 30 from 368 to 338, as of April 3.

The rig counts dropped by six in North Dakota from 48 to 42 and dipped by one in Colorado from 19 to 18.

The counts were the same in West Virginia (15), Louisiana (44) and Pennsylvania (24).

This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.