Investing.com - Oil prices slipped on Wednesday after diving 7% the previous day and suffered their biggest one-day loss in more than three years.
Crude Oil WTI Futures declined 0.3% at $55.5 a barrel by 11:19 AM ET (04:19 GMT).
Meanwhile, Brent Oil Futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., was down 0.2%, to $65.34.
Both benchmarks are now officially in the bear market territory, as they slumped more than 20% from their 52-week highs.
"It's like a run on the bank," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. "It's getting to the point where it doesn't seem to be about fundamentals anymore, but a total collapse in price."
Citing analysts, Reuters said worries over weakening global demand, and surging U.S. productions were the main catalysts for the selling.
Overall U.S. crude production hit a record 11.6 million bpd, making the United States the world's biggest oil producer ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday that
U.S. crude inventories climbed by 7.8 million barrels in the week ending Nov. 2 to 432 million as refineries cut output.
Crude oil prices surged earlier this year as the market prepared for shortages amid restoration of sanctions against Iran, the third-largest producer of OPEC.
The positive sentiment in oil prices diminished however after the sanctions were proven to be less severe, as U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week that several of Iran’s major buyers would be granted exemptions that allow them to continue buying limited amounts of crude for at least another six months.
Trump’s comments came one day after Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said Saudi Arabia would cut oil output from December and suggested that other members of OPEC and their non-OPEC allies led by Russia could follow suit.
The kingdom would cut oil supply by 0.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in December due to lower seasonal demand. The cut represents a reduction in global oil supply of about 0.5%, according to reports.