UPDATE 1-U.S. oil drillers cut rigs for 10th week -Baker Hughes

(Adds basin details, natural gas rigs in paragraphs 9-11)
Nov 6 (Reuters) - U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a tenth
week in a row this week, decreasing the pace of decline from
recent weeks, data showed on Friday, a sign low prices continued
to keep drillers away from the well pad.
Drillers removed six oil rigs in the week ended Nov. 6,
bringing the total rig count down to 572, the least since June
2010, oil services company Baker Hughes (N:BHI) Inc BHI.N said in its
closely followed report.
That is around a third of the 1,568 oil rigs operating in
same week a year ago. Over the 10 weeks, drillers cut 103 oil
rigs.
Although U.S. oil futures CLc1 have averaged $46 a barrel
so far this week, up from $45 last week, the front-month
December contract was on track to post its third weekly decline
in four as an oversupply of physical oil and a strong dollar
bedeviled the market. O/R
Energy traders noted the rate of oil rig reductions over the
past two months - about 11 on average - was much lower than the
19 rigs cut on average over the past year since the number of
rigs peaked at 1,609 in October 2014, due in part to
expectations of slightly higher prices in the future.
U.S. crude futures for next year were trading around on
average almost $49 a barrel, according to the full year 2016
calendar strip CLYstc1 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Higher prices encourage drillers to add rigs. The most
recent time crude prices were much higher than now was in May
and June when U.S. futures averaged $60 a barrel.
In response to those higher prices, drillers added 47 rigs
over the summer.
Despite the overall oil rig count reduction, drillers added
rigs in three of the four major U.S. shale oil basins this week.
They added four in the Permian in West Texas and eastern New
Mexico, and one each in the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana
and the Niobrara in Colorado and Wyoming, while cutting three in
Eagle Ford in South Texas.
With the latest cuts the total number of oil rigs in the
Eagle Ford fell to the lowest level since 2011.
With the decline in oil rigs this week, total oil and gas
rig count slid to a fresh 13-year low despite an increase of two
gas rigs.