Some analysts warned of $20 a barrel; Standard Chartered said fund selling may not relent until it reaches $10. By Tuesday, the crash had become almost self-fulfilling, with speculators too afraid to buy for fear of being burned by another false bottom. US West Texas Intermediate crude(WTI) was down $1.19 at $30.22 per barrel as of 2:19 pm EST (1919 GMT), a 3.7 percent loss, after touching a low of $29.93, which was last seen in December 2003.
"The momentum is too strong to the bearish side, even if fundamentally nothing has changed," said Dominick Chirichella, a senior partner at Energy Management Institute. With prices now below break-even costs for many producers, particularly in the once-thriving US shale patch, and the costly Canadian oil sands producers barely making $15 a barrel, an extended slump has caused financial pain to flare across the world, threatening corporate bankruptcies and fiscal strain.
Benchmark Brent crude had dropped 97 cents to $30.58 a barrel, for a 3.1 percent loss, after hitting a low of $30.34. Prices firmed early in the day after a deadly suicide bombing rocked central Istanbul, and Nigeria's oil minister said a "couple" of Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members had requested an emergency meeting.
But they then nose-dived anew after the United Arab Emirates oil minister quashed talk of a possible meeting, saying the group strategy was working. Opec has rejected calls by some of its members to curb output, opting instead to pump full throttle to defend market share rather than shore up prices. Oil has tumbled more than 18 percent this year alone, the worst seven-day run since the financial crisis. The long list of negative factors also includes the weakening economy and ailing stock market of No 2 consumer China, the rising US dollar, which makes oil more costly, and the surprising resilience of US shale drillers in the face of the price slide. Adding to supply fears, Iraq, the second-biggest Opec producer, plans to export a record of around 3.63 million barrels per day in February, said trade sources.