NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude prices erased early losses to rise by as much 1 percent on Friday after a report showing the fifth weekly decline in the U.S. oil rig count added to signs of falling production in the world's top oil consumer.
U.S. energy companies this week cut the number of rigs drilling for oil by 26, a weekly survey by oil services company Baker Hughes showed. It was the largest number of rigs idled in a week since April. [RIG/U]
Brent, the global oil benchmark, was up 30 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $47.99 a barrel by 1:19 p.m. EDT (1719 GMT). It had fallen about 1 percent earlier.
U.S. crude was up 60 cents, or 1.3 percent, at $45.34.
(Additional reporting by Simon Falush in London and Jacob Gronolt-Pedersen and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Dale Hudson, William Hardy and David Gregorio)
