Explorers parked one more drilling rig in U.S. oilfields this week as producers strive to make good on a government forecast that daily production will fall by a million barrels in the next two years.
Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. fell by 1 to 515 after more than 150 were idled since August, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. It was the eighth time in nine weeks that oil rigs declined. Natural gas rigs were down 13 to 135, trimming the total by 14 to 650. The slowdown among the big U.S. plays was led by the Niobrara in Colorado, where three rigs were let go, leaving 19 oil rigs to work there.
