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By Bloomberg

Crude held a third weekly loss as investors weighed the possibility of more Iranian crude against U.S. drillers idling rigs for the first time in three weeks.

Futures were little changed in New York after slipping 3.5 percent last week. The number of active machines targeting oil in the U.S. decreased by 7 to 638, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. Speculators cut bullish bets on oil to the lowest level since March because an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program threatens to prolong a global supply glut.

Oil’s recovery from a six-year low in March has sputtered amid speculation the surplus will be prolonged as drillers returned some rigs to fields and Iran seeks to regain market share. U.S. crude stockpiles remain almost 100 million barrels above the five-year average for this time of the year, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

West Texas Intermediate for August delivery, which expires Tuesday, slid 6 cents to $50.83 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 9:28 a.m. Sydney time. The more-active September contract dropped 5 cents to $51.16. The volume of all futures traded was about 25 percent above the 100-day average. Prices have decreased 4.4 percent this year.

Brent for September settlement lost 4 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $57.06 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $5.90 to WTI for September.