© Archyde.com. An oil pump in a field in Texas, USA, in a photo from the Archyde.com archive.
(Archyde.com) – Oil ended lower on Friday, giving up early gains of more than a barrel, as concerns about the banking sector pushed the two benchmarks to post their biggest weekly losses in months.
Crude futures fell $1.73, or 2.3%, to $72.97 a barrel at settlement, while US West Texas Intermediate crude lost $1.61, or 2.4%, to $66.74.
Both benchmarks fell more than $3, hitting their lowest levels during the session. Brent lost about 12 percent for the week, its biggest weekly loss since December. West Texas Intermediate crude futures have fallen 13 percent since last Friday’s close, marking their biggest weekly loss since last April.
“The fundamentals are not as bad as the market expects here, but there are concerns that oil will not be as safe as it is for liquidity or,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York.
(Prepared by Mahmoud Abdel-Gawad for the Arabic Bulletin)