Oil falls a third day, Brent crude set for worst week since 1991

TOKYO, March 13 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Friday for a
third day, with Brent crude set for its biggest weekly drop
since 1991 and U.S. crude heading for the worst week since 2008
as panic about plunging demand from the coronavirus outbreak
grips the market.
Brent crude LCOc1 was down 67 cents, or 2%, at $32.55 a
barrel by 0126 GMT after falling more than 7% on Thursday. For
the week, Brent is set to fall 28%, the biggest weekly decline
since the week of Jan. 18, 1991, when it fell 29% at the
outbreak of the first Gulf War.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was down 66
cents, or 2.1%, at $30.84 after falling more than $1 earlier.
The contract fell 4.5% in the previous session. WTI is set to
drop 25% this week, the most since the week of Dec. 19, 2008,
when it fell 27% at the height of the Global Financial Crisis.
A flood of low-priced oil into the market from Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates is intensifying the pressure on
prices after the collapse of a price supporting agreement with
Russia last week. "With the coronavirus triggering the first global oil demand
drop in years, the surge of Saudi Arabian and Russian oil
production could lead to a supply overhang of 4 million barrels
per day," Eurasia Group said.
Four million barrels is about 4% of daily global consumption
before the coronavirus outbreak that started in China.
Oil prices were also impacted by record declines in equity
markets with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling by 10% on Friday after
U.S. markets fell by the most since Black Monday in 1987 on
Thursday. MKTS/GLOB
U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ban on travel to the
United States from Europe that sent the markets swooning as
everything from sporting events to weddings were cancelled
across many parts of the world with the coronavirus spreading to
more countries.