US energy firms cut oil rigs for a second week in a row, data showed on Friday, a sign the latest price declines may be causing some drillers to put on hold their recently announced plans to return to the well pad. Drillers removed 10 rigs in the week ended September 11 and 13 rigs in the week ended September 4, bringing the total rig count down to 652, after adding rigs in six of the past eight weeks, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report. That was the biggest two-week decline since early May, Reuters reported. Those additions since the start of July showed some drillers had followed through on plans to add rigs announced in May and June when US crude futures averaged $60 a barrel. In response to falling prices, US oil production has declined over the past several weeks with current output down to about 9.1 million barrels per day last week from an average 9.6 million bpd from late May to mid July, the highest since the early 1970s, according to government data.
