UPDATE 1-U.S. oil drillers slow pace of rig cuts -Baker Hughes

(Adds basin details, natural gas rigs)
Oct 23 (Reuters) - U.S. energy firms reduced oil rigs for an
eighth week in a row this week but slowed the rate of those cuts
to just one rig, data showed on Friday, a sign some drillers may
soon return to the well pad with hopes of rising crude prices in
the future.
The total rig count for the week ended Oct. 23 fell to 594,
the least since July 2010. Over the past eight weeks, drillers
cut a total of 81 rigs, oil services company Baker Hughes (N:BHI) Inc
BHI.N said in its closely followed report.
The reduction this week was the lowest since drillers
started cutting rigs at the start of September after adding 47
rigs over the summer. Drillers decided to add the rigs over the
summer during the spring when crude prices averaged $60 a barrel
in May and June.
U.S. oil futures CLc1 this week however have lost over 5
percent to average $45 a barrel, sliding for a second straight
week, on continuing oversupply concerns even as China's latest
interest rate cut raised hopes for stronger demand from the
world's top energy consumer. O/R
The total count this week is less than half the 1,595 oil
rigs in the same week a year ago. Since hitting an all-time high
of 1,609 in October 2014, weekly rig count reductions have
averaged 19.
With natural gas rigs up one to 193 this week, the total oil
and gas rig count held at a 13-year low, according to Baker
Hughes.
The rig count is one of several indicators traders look at
in trying to figure out whether production will rise or fall
over the next several months. Other factors include how fast
energy firms complete previously drilled but unfinished wells
and rising well efficiency and productivity.
Despite the overall decline in oil rigs, drillers added rigs
in two of the four major U.S. shale oil basins this week. They
added three in the Niobrara in Colorado and Wyoming and one in
the Eagle Ford in South Texas, but removed three in the Permian
in West Texas and eastern New Mexico. There were no changes in
the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana.
On a weekly basis, the amount of U.S. oil pulled out of the
ground has remained about 9.1 million bpd since the start of
September, according to EIA's weekly field production report,
well below the 9.6 million-barrel per day peak seen in April.