Oil slides on strong dollar; US adds rigs

singapore — Oil prices fell over one per cent on Friday, dragged by a strong dollar, rising Saudi supplies to Asian clients, and a fall in Chinese imports.

Brent crude futures were trading at $48.42 at 0753GMT, down 58¢, or 1.2 per cent, from their last close, although overall activity was thin after the US Thanksgiving holiday and ahead of the weekend.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $47.41 per barrel, down 55¢, or 1.2 per cent, from their last settlement.

Traders said the main drag on prices on Friday was the strong dollar, which this week hit levels last seen in 2003 against a basket of other leading currencies, as it could crimp fuel demand due to higher dollar costs.

Reports that Saudi Aramco would in January increase oil supplies to some Asian customers also weighed on markets, traders said. Meanwhile, US oil drillers added rigs this week, boosting the number of increments in November to the most in a month since July, as shale producers boost spending to capture forecast higher crude prices in coming months.

Drillers added three oil rigs in the week to November 23, bringing the total count up to 474, the most since January, but still below the 555 rigs seen a year ago, energy services firm Baker Hughes said.

In November alone, drillers added 33, the most in a month since July.

Since crude prices recovered from 13-year lows to around $50 a barrel in May, drillers have added a total of 158 oil rigs in 23 of the last 26 weeks, its biggest recovery since a global oil glut crushed the market over two years. The Baker Hughes oil rig count plunged from a record 1,609 in October 2014 to a sixyear low of 316 in May as US crude collapsed from over $107 a barrel in June 2014 to near $26 in February 2016.

Analysts at Simmons & Co, energy specialists at US investment bank Piper Jaffray, this week forecast the total oil and natural gas rig count would average 505 in 2016, 697 in 2017 and 908 in 2018.

Most wells produce both oil and gas. —