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(Bloomberg) — Oil halted its advance after the biggest two-day gain since 2009 as U.S. drilling activity sustained its increase.

Futures slid as much as 1.4 percent in New York, dropping for the first time in three days. The number of active rigs in the U.S. rose for a sixth week to the most since May, data from from Baker Hughes Inc. show. A measure of oil-price fluctuations rose Friday to the highest level since March 31.
Oil rebounded above $45 a barrel last week amid a rally in commodities and equities as concerns eased over a slowdown in the U.S. and China. Prices are still down more than 25 percent from this year’s closing peak in June on speculation that a global supply glut will be prolonged.

West Texas Intermediate for October delivery fell as much as 64 cents to $44.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $44.72 at 8:51 a.m. Sydney time. The contract rose 17 percent through the two days ended Friday, the most since January 2009. The volume of all futures traded was more than three times above the 100-day average. Prices climbed 11.8 percent last week.
Brent for October settlement lost as much as 75 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $49.30 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $4.66 to WTI.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net Keith Gosman, Andrew Hobbs