NEW YORK, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices advanced on Friday, amid a slide in the U.S. dollar.

The West Texas Intermediate for July delivery added 81 cents to settle at 69.62 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for August delivery increased 58 cents to close at 71.89 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Prices found some support from a weaker dollar.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.41 percent to 90.1401 in late trading on Friday. Historically, the price of oil is inversely related to the price of the U.S. dollar.

Meanwhile, latest data showed a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. crude stockpiles.

U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 5.1 million barrels during the week ending May 28, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Thursday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts had expected the EIA report to show a decline of 3.3 million barrels in U.S. crude supplies.

For the week, U.S crude benchmark surged 5 percent, while Brent gained 4.6 percent, based on the front-month contracts. Enditem

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