Oil Slumps 4%, Nears New 6-Year Low As Glut Persists

"If we breach the lower end of the trading range, we could open the trap door to break $40 in the days and weeks to come."

U.S. gasoline futures were also battered, tumbling 4 percent, despite a weekly draw in the motor fuel's stockpiles. Heating oil futures sank 3 percent from an unexpected inventory hike due to unseasonbly warm weather.

The storage spike has sharply widened prompt crude's discount to oil slated for later delivery as traders hold more in hopes of selling at higher prices later. On Thursday, prompt U.S. crude's discount to the second-month was at its largest since the end of April. <CLc1-CLc2>

Oil traders are also watching global tanker traffic carefully this month amid signs that unsold crude may be accumulating on the water.

Reuters shipping data showed tankers with nearly 20 million barrels of Iraqi oil due to sail to the United States in November, potentially the largest import wave in years, while dozens of tankers are already queueing off the Texas coast.

(Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper and Simon Falush in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Lisa Von Ahn and Frances Kerry)

Copyright 2015 Thomson Reuters.


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