US crude explorers pulled back drilling rigs for a 10th straight week, as conviction grows that the worst oil downturn in decades is nearing its bottom. Rigs targeting oil in the US fell by 6 to 572, extending a five-year low after nearly 100 were idled since the start of September, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday, Bloomberg reported. Natural gas rigs gained 2 to 199, bringing the total down by 4 to 771. The Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas, whose total rig count is down by 72% since the middle of 2012, was the only one of the four major US basins to drop oil rigs this week. Three were let go there, bringing the active oil rig count down to 61. America’s oil drillers have idled more than half the country’s rigs since last October, as the world’s largest crude suppliers battle for market share. The crude being pumped out of US shale formations helped create a global glut that has pushed prices down by more than 50% since June 2014.
