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Oil prices decline amid rising U.S. oil rigs

Xinhua, December 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Oil prices ended slightly lower amid thin trading on Friday before New Year holiday, as data showed U.S. oil rigs continued to rise.

U.S. oil services firm Baker Hughes reported on Friday that its weekly count of oil rigs operating in U.S. fields climbed for a ninth straight week. The rig count added 2 to 525, lower than 536 rigs operating at this time last year.

Moreover, crude oil inventories rose 0.6 million barrels last week to 486.1 million, up 6.8 percent from last year at this time, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday.

The West Texas Intermediate for February Delivery decreased 0.05 dollars to settle at 53.72 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for March delivery erased 0.03 dollars to close at 56.82 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Enditem