Investing.com - Oil prices fell on Tuesday, dropping for a third-consecutive session amid indications of swelling global inventories due to record U.S. and Russian output.
Worries that the ongoing U.S.-China trade dispute will drag on global growth and, by extension, erode energy demand, also weighed.
Front-month U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures sank $1.11, or 2.2%, to $49.09 by 8:55 AM ET (13:55 GMT). It fell to as low as $48.15 earlier, the weakest level since September 2017.
International Brent crude oil futures slumped $1.09, or 1.8%, to $58.52 a barrel, after touching a 14-month low of $57.23.
Both crude oil benchmarks have shed more than 30% since early October due to swelling global inventories.
Market players now look ahead to the release of fresh weekly data on U.S. commercial crude inventories.
The American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report for the week ended Dec. 14 at 4:30 PM ET (21:30 GMT), amid expectations of a drop of about 2.5 million barrels.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly report will be released on Wednesday.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures dropped 1% to $1.381 a gallon, while heating oil lost 1.2% to $1.804 a gallon.
Natural gas futures rallied 5.1% to $3.708 per million British thermal units. The contract sank 7.8% on Monday, the biggest one-day drop since Nov. 15.
-- Reuters contributed to this report