After weeks of idling rigs on slumping crude prices, U.S. oil drillers added rigs to the Permian Basin for the first time this year, industry data showed on Friday. Energy companies increased by one each the number of oil rigs in the Permian basin of West Texas and eastern New Mexico – the biggest and fastest growing U.S. shale oil field – and in the Barnett in Texas. That was the first increase in the Permian since December and the first in the Barnett since March, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday. Overall, the number of active oil rigs declined for the 22nd week in a row, but the rate of that decline has slowed in recent weeks, suggesting the collapse in drilling may be coming to an end as prices recover after falling 60 percent from June to March. The number of rigs drilling for […]