US crude settles down 2% at $43.03 a barrel, dragged lower by glut worry

Raheb Homavandi | TIMA
Iranian workers walk at a unit of South Pars Gas field in Asalouyeh Seaport, north of Persian Gulf, Iran November 19, 2015

Crude oil prices fell 2 percent on Friday to multi-week lows as swelling Iranian exports reinforced fears of a global glut, while gasoline rallied on refinery and pipeline outages.

Falling U.S. equities and a rising dollar also weighed on crude futures and other industrial commodities denominated in the greenback.

Gasoline surged 3 percent on news of an extended outage on Colonial Pipeline's main gasoline line and in a key unit of BP's Whiting, Indiana refinery. The profit for turning crude into gasoline hit three-month highs and pump prices for the fuel rose as well.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures settled down 88 cents, or 2 percent, at $43.03 a barrel, after falling to $42.74, the lowest intraday level since Aug. 11. WTI slipped about 6.2 percent this week.

Benchmark Brent crude futures traded down 72 cents, or 1.6 percent, at $45.87 a barrel at 2:37 p.m. ET (1837 GMT). The contract earlier fell as low as $45.48 and is down nearly 5 percent on the week.