published Jun 12th 2016, 5:52 pm, by Stephen Stapczynski

(Bloomberg) —
Crude fell a third day after the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. rose for a second week.

Futures fell as much as 1 percent in New York after dropping 4.2 percent in the previous two sessions. Rigs targeting crude in the U.S. rose by 3 to 328 last week, capping the first two-week gain since August, Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday. Iran is seeking to boost output by 600,000 to 700,000 barrels a day over five years from fields in an area west of the Karoun River along the Iraqi border, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.

Oil has surged about 85 percent from a 12-year low in February as the global glut is trimmed by disruptions and a slide in U.S. output, which is under pressure from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ policy of pumping without limits.

West Texas Intermediate for July delivery fell as much 49 cents to $48.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $48.66 at 7:27 a.m. Tokyo time. Total volume traded was 29 percent below the 100-day average. The contract slipped $1.49 to settle at $49.07 on Friday.

Brent for August settlement dropped as much as 42 cents to $50.12 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices decreased $1.41 to close at $50.54 on Friday. The global benchmark crude was trading at a 87-cent premium to WTI for August delivery.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Stapczynski in Tokyo at sstapczynsk1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net Aaron Clark, Sungwoo Park

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