LONDON: World oil prices nudged lower Thursday before a key US snapshot of crude stockpiles, one day after striking 12 year lows on abundant global supplies.
In midday deals in London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in March slid 21 cents to $27.67 per barrel compared with the close on Wednesday.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March dipped 34 cents to $28.01 a barrel.
Expectations that the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will later report another increase in the country's commercial crude stockpiles weighed down on sentiment, analysts said.
"There is still no end in sight to the nose-diving prices on the oil market," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.
Rising inventories in the world's biggest oil consuming nation would deepen a global supply glut that has plagued the market.
The weekly EIA inventories report is due for publication one day later than normal owing to a US public holiday on Monday.
Traders were also on edge ahead of Thursday's upcoming interest rate decision from the European Central Bank.
So far this year, oil has taken a hammering, with both main contracts already down about one quarter in value.
The commodity crashed further on Wednesday, with Brent striking $27.10 -- last seen in early November 2003.
And WTI struck $26.19 -- a level witnessed in May of the same year.
After a calamitous start to the year, oil prices have crumbled further this week after the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that the market could "drown in oversupply", with the return of Iranian crude after the lifting of Western sanctions offsetting any output cuts from other countries.
Oil was slammed also by plunging global stock markets and a gloomy International Monetary Fund downgrade to world economic growth.
Since mid-2014, meanwhile, prices have collapsed by about 75 percent, hit by a perfect storm of a supply glut, weak demand, a slowing global economy and a strong dollar.
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