* Dollar index hits 3-week high on hopes of U.S. tax cuts
* OPEC delivered 93 percent of pledged output curbs in January
* Saudi cuts deeper than expected and lower than under the deal
* U.S. shale output to rise by most in five months in March
* U.S. oil rig count highest since Oct 2015 - Baker Hughes
* ABN Amro reduces Brent price forecast for H1 2017 to $50/bbl (Adds closing prices, fresh quote, U.S. shale production forecast)
By Scott DiSavino
NEW YORK, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Oil prices declined on Monday by about 2 percent, the most since mid-January, pressured by a stronger dollar and signs of rising U.S. crude output.
Investors were meanwhile underwhelmed by an OPEC report showing high compliance with last year's production-cut deal.
Brent futures LCOc1 lost $1.11, or 2 percent, at $55.59 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 fell 93 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $52.93 per barrel.
Those were the biggest percentage declines for both contracts since Jan. 18.
"Crude fell due to the stronger dollar earlier in the session, an increase in the U.S. rig count and an increase in U.S. productivity in the shale basins," said James Williams, president of energy consultant WTRG Economics in Arkansas.
Hopes of U.S. tax cuts to stoke corporate profits and investments lifted the dollar to a near three-week high against a basket of currencies .DXY earlier Monday, pressuring greenback-denominated oil. USD/
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers, including Russia, agreed late last year to cut output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) during the first half of 2017 in a deal aimed at supporting prices and lessening a glut.
The group's first monthly data since the deal showed that top producer Saudi Arabia made a large cut in its crude output in January, helping boost compliance with the group's supply-reduction deal to a record high of 93 percent. Arabia told OPEC that it made an even bigger cut than estimated by the secondary sources, reducing January output by more than 700,000 bpd to 9.748 million bpd - lower than called for under the OPEC deal.
But high compliance had been expected and the report failed to push oil prices into positive territory.
"The good compliance rate of OPEC seems to be priced in. The U.S. rig count from Friday is weighing, the numbers support the shale comeback story," said Frank Klumpp, oil analyst at Stuttgart-based Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg.
U.S. shale oil production for March is expected to rise by the most in five months, government data showed on Monday, as energy companies boost drilling on the back of oil prices that are hovering over $50 a barrel. the past month, U.S. oil drillers have added the most drilling rigs since 2012, bringing the total to 591 rigs, the highest since October 2015, oil services company Baker Hughes said in a weekly report. cut net long positions on Brent last week by 10,000 contracts, weekly ICE data showed, highlighting investor concerns about rising U.S. production. EONGBA0SZ
Analysts at ABN Amro are sceptical about OPEC production cuts delivering higher oil prices, and reduced Brent forecasts for the first half of this year to $50 from $55 a barrel.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ GRAPHIC: OPEC vs U.S. oil production
http://tmsnrt.rs/2kPMpyh GRAPHIC: Global oil supply vs demand
http://tmsnrt.rs/2jUJLWm
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