Crude prices retreat on profit-taking

Oil prices dropped Friday on profit-taking after a three-day rise.

According to data released Friday by oil service company Baker Hughes, the number of U.S. oil rigs in use fell by 10 this week to 318.

The gradual return of Canada crude output also weighed on the market. Between 900,000 and 1 million barrels a day of oil production were offline early this week due to the wildfires raged in the western Canada oil city of Fort McMurray, some oil pipelines have been shut down.

U.S. crude supplies of last week lost 3.4 million barrels to 540 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA)'s weekly report released Wednesday. Crude production of the country decreased 23,000 to 8.802 million barrels a day last week.

The West Texas Intermediate for June delivery moved down 49 cents to settle at 46.21 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery decreased 25 cents to close at 47.83 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.