NYMEX October light sweet crude oil....>

US OIL CLOSE: NYMEX October light sweet crude oil futures settled unchanged at

$49.89 per barrel, after trading in a $49.41 to $50.13 range.

- On Thursday, the pair vaulted its 200-day moving average, currently at $49.57

and took out late July/early August peaks in the $50.22 to $50.43 to post nearly

a four-month high of $50.50 before backing off. West Texas Intermediate last

closed above the psychological $50 mark July 31

- Only August 31, WTI posted a low of $45.58, the lowest since July 24, when the

front contract posted a low of $45.40.

- As background, WTI topped out at $52.00 May 25, before the announcement of a

nine-month extension of OPEC/non-OPEC production cuts. The extension was largely

priced in and oil fell to $42.05 on June 21.

- Baker Hughes rig count data, released Friday, showed a seven rig decline to

749 rigs in U.S. "oil-only" rigs for the week ending Sept. 15. This is less than

double the 416 rigs seen a year ago. Rigs are still down 53.4% from the peak rig

count of 1,609 rigs seen Oct. 10, 2014.