Stocks closed at $38.24 a barrel, which was the lowest since February 2009. Steep losses last week capped the contract's longest weekly losing streak since 1986.
U.S. crude is now nearly 18 percent below its opening price at the start of the month and Brent is down about 16 percent. Both WTI and Brent look like they are on their way to 2008 levels where prices hit a low of $32.4 and $36.2. Some OPEC members have called for an emergency meeting to discuss output cuts, but the organization's biggest oil producer Saudi Arabia looks unlikely to let this happen.