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1st LD Writethru: Oil prices rises as rig count falls

Xinhua, February 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Oil prices extended gains on Friday as data showed more rigs were pulled out of oil fields in the United States this week.

U.S. field services company Baker Hughes said on Friday that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the country dropped by 84 to 1,056, the lowest level since August 2011. According to the company, half of the slump was in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, the nation's biggest oil producing area.

Oil prices were further supported by positive economic data from the eurozone. The eurozone's seasonally adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 from the previous quarter, according to flash estimate published Friday by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Crude prices were lifted on Thursday as energy producers planned to slash investment and rig count this year in face of historically low crude prices, which investors saw as a sign for lower production in the future.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery moved up 1.57 U.S. dollars to settle at 52.78 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for March delivery rose 4. 47 U.S. dollars to close at 61.52 dollars a barrel. Endite