Oil plummeted to a 14-month low under the $70 level on Thursday after the government reported a bigger-than-expected jump in crude inventories.
The benchmark oil contract was recently trading lower by $5.17 at $69.37 a barrel. Oil is now trading more than 50% off its midsummer high.
The Energy Information Administration said crude stocks jumped by 5.6 million barrels last week, which comes in well above the 3.1 million barrel increase analysts expected.
Gasoline futures followed crude’s sharp decline, falling about 16-cents to $1.63 per gallon.
