Brent up, U.S. Crude Dips

 Brent crude rose and U.S. futures dipped on Friday in choppy trading as expectations of increased exports from Iran capped prices and helped both contracts post their third consecutive weekly losses.

Crude prices received support late in the session from Baker Hughes Inc 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 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, 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.

Iran has started to ship oil to Asia that had been stored offshore for months after Tehran and six world powers reached an agreement about Tehran's nuclear program on Tuesday, clearing the way for an easing of sanctions on Iran.

"With the Iran deal, people are aware there is more supply coming, so all impetus for a price correction higher has gone," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro in Amsterdam.

Money managers cut their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to Tuesday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Friday.

U.S. RBOB gasoline futures rose, supported by recent government data showing strong gasoline demand.

Thursday's news of fewer U.S. jobless claims also buoyed gasoline, even as a string of encouraging economic data bolstered the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, a move considered bearish for crude as it could curb liquidity.

Despite Friday's strength, gasoline futures fell more than 4 percent for the week, the biggest decline since mid-March and the fifth consecutive weekly drop.

(Additional reporting by Simon Falush in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Bernadette Baum and Andrew Hay)