The U.S. natural gas rig count dropped two units to finish at 160 for the week ended Friday (March 31), while a decline of one oil-directed rig dropped the combined total by three units to 755, updated numbers from Baker Hughes Co. (BKR) show.

rigs

All of the domestic declines for the period occurred on land, with the Gulf of Mexico count unchanged week/week at 17. Three vertical rigs packed up shop during the period, alongside one horizontal unit. Partially offsetting was the addition of one directional rig.

The combined 755 active U.S. rigs as of Friday compares with 673 rigs running in the year-earlier period, according to the BKR numbers, which are partly based on data from Enverus.

The Canadian count, meanwhile, dropped 26 rigs overall to end at 139, versus 124 in the...