post their third consecutive weekly losses.

Crude prices received support late in the session from Baker Hughes Inc (BHI.N) data showing U.S. drillers cut seven rigs this week, after adding rigs the previous two weeks.

"The rig count is a bullish element and might help keep U.S. crude above $50 and we might see some short covering rallies," said Dan Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

Earlier, dollar-denominated oil was pressured by the U.S. dollar's strength as it traded near a seven-week high against a basket of currencies after being bolstered Thursday by lower U.S. jobless claims.

Brent September crude LCOc1 gained 18 cents to settle at $57.10 a barrel, off nearly 3 percent for the week and more than 10 percent for the month.

Brent's August contract expired on Thursday.

U.S. August crude CLc1, also known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), fell only 2 cents to settle at $50.89, down more than 3 percent this week and more than 14 percent in July. The August contract expires on July 21.

Britain's North Sea Buzzard oilfield ramped up after an outage on Wednesday. The outage was supportive to Brent as oil from the field contributes to the calculation of the futures price.