US energy firms this week cut the number of oil rigs for an 11th week in the last 12, data showed on Friday, a sign drillers were still waiting for higher prices before returning to the well pad en masse. Drillers removed 10 oil rigs in the week ended Nov. 20, the biggest weekly decline since late October, bringing the total rig count down to 564, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report, Reuters reported. That is about a third of the 1,574 oil rigs operating in same week a year ago. After cutting 103 oil rigs over the past two months, drillers added two rigs last week. Drillers cut rigs in two of the four major US shale oil basins this week. They removed five in the Permian in West Texas and eastern New Mexico and one in the Niobrara in Colorado and Wyoming, while adding one in the Eagle Ford in South Texas. The number of rigs in the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana remained the same.
