1st LD Writethru: Oil prices down though supply drops

Oil prices dropped Wednesday though U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week.

The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery moved down 59 cents to settle at 45.15 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

U.S. crude supplies of last week decreased 4.4 million barrels to 455.3 million, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA)'s Wednesday weekly report.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U. S. contract, lost 540,000 barrels to 57.16 million barrels.

U.S. crude production added 52,000 barrels to 9.465 million barrels a day that week. The increasing production weighed on the market.

U.S. oil companies added more oil rigs last week despite the collapse in crude prices, marking the second straight week of an uptick in the rig count.

Data showed a weekly rise of 5 in the number of active U.S. oil drilling rigs to 664, according to oil services company Baker Hughes' Friday report.

The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery moved down 59 cents to settle at 45.15 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for September delivery decreased 40 cents to close at 49.59 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Future Exchange. Endite