Oil Prices Fell to 20 Month Low

Oil prices dropped on Tuesday to their lowest level in 20 months, since March 2007, as one of the worst economic slowdowns in recent months continued to slower consumption around the world.

Light, sweet crude oil futures for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled at $59.33 a barrel, down 5 percent. Prices have plummeted 59 percent since hitting their summer peak of $145.29 a barrel in July.

Oil demand in the United States dropped over the summer after gasoline prices soared above $4 a gallon earlier this year. Since July 4, gasoline prices have dropped for 17 weeks, to a nationwide average of about $2.22 a gallon, according to AAA, the automobile club.

At an emergency meeting last month, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose members account for 40 percent of the world’s oil exports, agreed to reduce their output, as of Nov. 1, to slow the price slide. So far, OPEC producers have announced cuts totaling about 1.1 million barrels a day, less than the 1.5 million barrels a day that the cartel agreed to last month.

The world is facing the prospect of a simultaneous global recession for the first time in more than 60 years. The Chinese economy, long the main engine of growth in oil demand, is also slowing. Oil specialists now expect global demand to drop this year, which would be the first annual decline since 1983.