Rigs targeting oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose by eight this week to 1,762, according to Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) Oil rigs increased two to 1,385, data posted on the company’s website show. The gas count gained five to 370, the Houston-based field services company said. Miscellaneous rigs were up one to seven. The U.S. total count is down from 1,809 a year earlier even as domestic oil output has surged to the highest level in more than two decades, boosted by new technologies that have increased the yield from wells and shortened drilling times. Oil output per rig in North Dakota ’s Bakken formation, Texas ’s Eagle Ford play and the Marcellus Shale in the eastern U.S. are forecast to rise to records next month, the Energy Information Administration said in a Nov. 12 report . Producers’ use of “new drilling and completion techniques is maximizing […]