U.S. oil and gas rigs continued to fall this week despite still-rising levels of production. Drillers idled 48 rigs (37 of which were oil rigs), dropping the number to 1,310 and marking the 11th consecutive decline, Baker Hughes reported on Friday. The total U.S. rig count is down 32 percent since October, an unprecedented retreat. The median forecast from a Bloomberg survey of ten # RigCountGuesses on Twitter was for a decline of 52. Active oil and gas rigs for the last five years. Source: Baker Hughes The Baker Hughes rig counts is a newly popular and controversial signal for U.S. oil watchers. Rigs are used to explore for new deposits and to drill new wells. The theory goes that when oil rigs decline, fewer wells are drilled, less new oil is discovered, and oil production slows. That would be good news for investors hoping for a rise in crude prices after […]