NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? Bermuda-based Nabors Industries Ltd., the world?s largest onshore oil and natural-gas driller, said fourth-quarter profit was less than analysts expected because of a decline in drilling for natural gas in the continental US and Canada.

Profit was 95 cents to $1 a share in the quarter, the company said in a statement yesterday. Nabors, which is based in Hamilton and run from offices in Houston, was expected to earn $1.11 a share excluding some items, the average estimate from 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Nabors said it operated 13 fewer rigs in both Canada and the lower 48 states of the US in the quarter. The number of rigs drilling for oil and gas in North America fell 5.5 percent from a record in February as energy prices tumbled, data from Baker Hughes Inc., the third-largest oilfield contractor.

?The cycle has peaked,? said Ben Dell, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York who rates Nabors shares at ?market perform? and owns none. ?Oil and gas producers spend what they make the day that they make it, and their cash-stream generation has started to decline because of lower prices.?

The stock has dropped 27 percent in the past year.

Delays in starting up new rigs contributed to the shortfall in the continental US, while weakness in the shallow-drilling market, weather-related delays for deeper projects and retirement of equipment led to the decline in Canada, chief executive officer Eugene Isenberg said in the statement.

?Our international, Alaskan and US land well-servicing operations are growing in line with our previous expectations as is our US offshore business, albeit modestly slower,? Isenberg said.

There were 2,139 rigs drilling for oil and gas in North America as of December 29, down from a record 2,263 on February 17, Houston-based Baker Hughes said.

Gas futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange plunged 60 percent from a record $15.78 per million British thermal units in December 2005 as mild winter weather left an abundance of fuel in storage in the US Oil futures dropped 23 percent from a record $78.40 a barrel last July.

Nabors owns and operates about 600 land drilling rigs and approximately 800 land workover and well-servicing rigs in North America. The company also operates 46 platform rigs, 22 jack-up units and five barge rigs worldwide. Workover rigs are used to complete wells drilled by others so that they can begin production.