HOUSTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States decreased by eight to 1,075 this week, or 151 more than that this time last year, according to the weekly data released by the Baker Hughes on Friday.

The number of land drilling rigs fell by 6 to 1,050 rigs. The number of inland waters drilling rigs stayed level at 3 rigs, while the number of offshore drilling rigs decreased by 2 to 22 rigs.

The number of directional and vertical drilling rigs both decreased by 4 to 66 rigs and 64 rigs, respectively. The number of horizontal drilling rigs remained even at 945 rigs.

The Houston-based oilfield services company reported that the U.S. state of California decreased the most by 5 to 10 rigs. Texas led the gain with increasing by 2 to 534 rigs.

The number of rigs operating in U.S. oil fields fell by 8 to 877 rigs this week, and more than half of the oil rigs were located in the Permian Basin region of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The number of rigs drilling for gas remained same as the last week.

Oil prices rallied on Friday as the number of active U.S. oil drilling rigs declined after two straight weeks of gains.

The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery gained 0.87 U.S. dollar to settle at 47.96 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and the Brent crude for March delivery increased 1.11 dollars to close at 57.06 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.