Oil futures took a deep dive on Friday as both West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude lost over a dollar per barrel in active trading, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
November West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.50, or 3%, to settle at $49.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, WTI prices finished around 4.6% lower for the week after posting gains in the last four weeks.
December Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell $1.38, or 2.4%, to end trading at $55.62 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange. The contract ended nearly 2.1% lower for the week.
There are “a couple of potentially game-changing developments on the horizon for the coming days in geopolitics,” according to analysts at consultancy JBC Energy.
Investors are closely watching the fallout over an independence referendum in Iraq which could create a volatile crude oil environment in the Kurdistan region.
The oil market is also awaiting President Trump’s decision next week on certification of Iran’s compliance with the international nuclear deal. Iran is an OPEC member and key Middle Eastern oil producer.
Monthly market reports from OPEC, the Energy Information Administration and the International Energy Agency are also due out next week.
Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, November natural gas declined 2.1% to settle at $2.863 per million British thermal units. Natural gas futures lost around 4.8% for the week.