Led by a pullback in Haynesville Shale activity, the U.S. natural gas rig count dropped four units to 115 for the week ended Friday (March 8), according to updated figures from Baker Hughes Co. (BKR).

The 115 active U.S. natural gas rigs as of Friday compares with 153 running in the year-ago period, according to the BKR numbers, which are based partly on data from Enverus.

U.S. drilling declines for the period also included two oil-directed rigs and one miscellaneous unit, dropping the combined domestic count by seven to 622, versus 746 a year ago.

Land drilling accounted for the entirety of the net decline domestically, with the Gulf of Mexico count steady week/week at 19. Four horizontal rigs and three vertical rigs packed up shop in the United States for the period, with...