The latest slide in the oil price comes days after BP said it was cutting 600 North Sea jobs - 20% of its workforce in the region.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude has crashed through the $30 mark to a new near 12-year low as the global oil slump shows no sign of abating.
Latest signs that the oversupply of oil was continuing to build sent the price briefly as low as $29.96 before climbing back above $30. It has not been below $30 since February 2004.
It has tumbled from a peak of more than $115 in the summer of 2014.
The latest slide followed US data showing a surge in US crude inventories.
The inventories measure the weekly change in the number of barrels of commercial crude oil held by American firms.
The glut of oil being pumped out by the US and other producers, combined with slowing world demand from the likes of China, has weighed heavily on the price of oil and other commodities.
Meanwhile, speculation that there might be an emergency meeting of oil-producing OPEC nations to try to tackle the slump faded on Wednesday when Iran’s oil minister said he had received no request for such a gathering.
The worldwide slump puts more money in consumers' pockets and weighs down inflation.
But it has badly damaged oil companies such as BP – which is a mainstay of many UK pension funds - as well as a wider spectrum of firms that supply parts and services to the industry.
The latest slump in Brent crude comes days after BP said it was shedding 600 posts in the North Sea – 20% of its workforce in the region – as it axes a total of 4,000 jobs worldwide from its exploration and production divisions over the next two years.
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