On Monday crude oil futures tumbled 2%, as China's imports weakened and bearish comments by Saudi Arabia’ oil minister weighed on the prices.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for delivery in May slumped $1.04, or 2.24%, to trade at $45.49 a barrel during European morning hours.
On the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for May delivery declined $1.04, or 1.88%, to trade at $54.28 a barrel.
Meanwhile, the spread between the Brent and the WTI crude contracts stood at $8.79 a barrel, compared to $8.75 by close of trade on Wednesday, says Investing.com.
Poor demand from top energy consumer China comes at a time when the OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia has repeated its decision to keep production unchanged and ride out a market plunge, which has almost halved prices since last June.
"We repeat that, as for prices, the market determines it," Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said on Sunday, mentioning that Saudi Arabia would only consider output cuts in cooperation with non-OPEC producers.
Oil prices have dropped steeply in recent months as OPEC refused to cut output, while the U.S. pumped at the fastest pace in more
than three decades, creating a global oil surplus.
On Friday industry research group Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) said that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. fell by 41 last week to 825, the 15th-straight week of declines and the lowest since March 2011.
The widely expected Fed's rate hike later this year is weighing even more on oil markets as investors pull money out of commodity-linked assets and currencies.
"In the past 15 years, the global economy was defined by rising commodity prices, zero interest rate policy, and a weak USD. This cycle has now gone into reverse with a decelerating industrial economy in China and the rise of U.S. shale," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a report.
