UPDATE 10-Oil falls for fourth week; US crude posts steepest weekly loss since 1991

* Brent and WTI fall for four straight weeks
* Trump will enter Saudi-Russia price war 'at appropriate
time'
* Kremlin said we don't need anyone to intervene
* Texas regulator urges state to consider oil output limits

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
to settlement)
By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. crude tumbled 10.7% on
Friday and posted its biggest weekly decline since the 1991 Gulf
War as the coronavirus epidemic dried up global demand and as
officials in Washington said an envoy would head to Saudi Arabia
to deal with fallout of a Saudi-Russia oil price war.
The week featured four days of massive selling as the
growing pandemic kept people from driving and booking flights.
Major forecasters like trading giant Vitol and energy researcher
IHS Markit said oil demand could drop by as much as 10%. Oil
prices rose sharply on Thursday after days of selling, but the
rally did not last.
U.S. crude prices notched a weekly loss of 29%, the steepest
since the outset of the U.S./Iraq Gulf War in 1991. Brent crude
dropped by 20%. Both benchmarks have dropped for four straight
weeks.
"With the economy continuing to grind more and more to a
halt, it's clear the demand destruction is continuing to grow.
Whatever efforts are being made to cut production in the U.S.
and capital expenditures, it's not enough right now," said John
Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital Management in New York.
On Friday, Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell $1.49, or 5.2%,
to settle at $26.98 a barrel. U.S. crude futures for April
CLc1 fell $2.69, or 10.7%, to settle at $22.53 a barrel. The
front-month contract expires on Friday. The more active U.S.
crude contract for May CLc2 settled down $3.28, or 12.7%, at
$22.63.
U.S. crude has lost half its value in the past two weeks,
and Brent has dropped about 40%, as the pandemic has cut demand
at the same time as a collapse of coordinated output cuts by the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and
allied producers including Russia.
U.S. officials scrambled to respond on Friday, saying they
would send a U.S. Energy Department official to Saudi Arabia for
several months to work on stabilizing energy markets. Also, a
Texas state regulator spoke with OPEC Secretary General Mohammad
Barkindo about the possibility of a global production cut.
Texas regulators have not intervened to cut output among
state producers since 1973. The American Petroleum Institute
weighed in against the idea on Friday, saying quotas do not
work.
"As far as a coordinated response with OPEC, it's hard to
see a plan coming together along those lines," Kilduff said.
Prices dropped sharply just before Friday's close, as hedge
funds and other money managers rushed to get out of the contract
on its final day of trading, pushing the expiring April contract
down by twice as much as the current May contract, said Bob
Yawger, director of Energy Futures for Mizuho.
Saudi Arabia said it would push its production to a record
12.3 million bpd and booked shipments to send oil around the
globe, refusing entreaties to rein in output. U.S. elected
officials have urged the Trump Administration to get involved.
Traders and analysts were scrambling to revise down
forecasts for oil demand, as government lockdowns to contain the
coronavirus outbreak have rapidly cut fuel consumption.
"Global demand could easily drop by 10 million barrels per
day or more," said Giovanni Serio, head of research at Vitol.
Others, including IHS Markit and Standard Chartered bank, have
made similar predictions.