Glut worries send oil futures down 12%

LONDON — Oil notched its biggest weekly loss since the depths of the last price crash, as record Saudi output, pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump and a global stock sell-off intensified crude’s freefall.

Futures slid below $60 in London on Friday and ended the week down about 12 percent, the biggest drop since January 2016. Traders focused on the growing risks of a new glut of crude after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said Thursday that production from the world’s largest exporter had climbed further this month.

Oil joined a fall in equity markets nervous about international trade and a weakening economy. The S&P 500 Index fell to its lowest mark since May, while European markets lost ground after a report showing a slowdown in Germany. Energy companies led declines, with shale drillers Concho Resources and Devon Energy each down more than 5 percent.

In the U.S., West Texas Intermediate oil prices to just above $50 a barrel, the baseline at which many large shale explorers set their budget this year, RBC Capital Markets analyst Scott Hanold said in a note to clients. Smaller producers planned on even more, predicating budgets on prices 10 to 15 percent higher, he wrote. Brent for January settlement fell 6.1 percent to $58.80 a barrel at the close of trading on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.