U.S. upstream activity continued to slow during the week ended Friday (Aug. 25) as total active domestic rigs fell by 10 to 632, largely driven by declines in oil-directed drilling, the latest figures from Baker Hughes Co. (BKR) show.

Changes in the United States for the period included a decline of eight oil-directed rigs, alongside a two-rig drop in natural gas-directed activity. Land drilling declined by eight units, with one rig departing offshore and one rig exiting inland waters. Horizontal rigs were down five week/week, along with declines of three vertical rigs and two directional rigs.

The combined 632 rigs running as of Friday compares with 765 U.S. rigs in the year-earlier period, according to the BKR numbers, which are based partly on data from Enverus.

The...