The U.S. land-based oil and natural gas rig count declined by seven in the latest tally, issued Friday, June 5, by Baker Hughes Inc. Three natural gas-directed rigs packed it in while four oil-directed rigs were taken out of service.

As of the latest count, there were 642 oil-directed rigs running in the United States and 222 targeting gas. The U.S. Gulf of Mexico gave up two rigs to end at 27 running.

The count of horizontal U.S. rigs was down by only one to 673; however, the census of vertical rigs declined by 12 to end at 99 running.

The count of Canadian rigs increased by 18 to 116, and the North American count overall was up by 11 rigs to 984.

The average U.S. rig count for May 2015 was 889, down 87 from the 976 counted in April 2015, and down 970 from the 1,859 counted in May 2014. The average Canadian rig count for May 2015 was 80, down 10 from the 90 counted in April 2015, and down 82 from the 162 counted in May 2014, Baker Hughes said.

In the previous weekly count, there were three natural gas rigs added while there were 13 oil-directed rigs lost (see Daily GPI, May 29).