Oil Rigs Increase by 12 to 640 in First Gain This Year

Drillers put rigs in U.S. oil fields back to work for the first time since December, driving down crude futures on speculation that an unprecedented retreat from the country’s prolific shale formations is ending.

Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. rose by 12 to 640, the first increase since Dec. 5, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. The count in almost every major U.S. oil basin gained, with Texas’s Eagle Ford shale formation adding three.