Oil prices drop on more US supplies

Oil prices fell as US production continued to add despite price collapse.

US oil companies added more oil rigs this week despite the plunge in crude prices, marking the third straight week of an uptick in the rig count, Xinhua reported on Friday.

Data showed a weekly rise of 6 in the number of active US oil drilling rigs to 670, according to oil services company Baker Hughes' Friday report.

US crude production added 52,000 barrels to 9.465 million barrels a day that week, according to the weekly report of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday. The rising production weighed on the market.

The global oversupply was currently running at 2 million barrels a day, compared with 1.8 million during the first six months of the year, according to a report released by Goldman Sachs Thursday.

The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery moved down 79 cents to settle at 43.87 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for September delivery decreased 91 cents to close at 48.61 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Future Exchange.