U.S. oil explorers, facing crude near $50 a barrel, idled rigs for the 10th straight week, extending an unprecedented retreat in drilling and dragging the nation’s total rig count down to the lowest level in almost five years. Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. dropped by 84 to 1,056, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. Those seeking gas slipped by 14 to 300, the Houston-based field services company said. Miscellaneous rigs were unchanged at two. The total U.S. count fell by 98 to 1,358. Last year’s 44 percent slide in crude prices triggered a record pullback in U.S. oil drilling, sidelining more than 400 rigs within two months, erasing tens of thousands of jobs and shrinking estimated exploration and production spending by more than $116 billion. John J. Christmann, chief executive officer of the Houston-based independent explorer Apache Corp., said Thursday that the drop in […]