There's only 97 rigs operating today compared to 900 about five years ago. This is the first dip below 100 rigs in three decades.

For the first time in at least three decades, fewer than 100 rigs are drilling for the fuel.

Drilling rigs targeting gas slid by five to 97 in the week ended March 4, the least in data going back to 1987, Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday. There were about 900 working in gas fields five years ago.

The declining rig count portends the drop-off in gas production that analysts have been calling all year as prices have slid. Bullish gas traders have been waiting for drillers to cut deeply enough to shrink output from shale formations and eat into the biggest supply surplus in four years.