Crude price briefly dips to below 30 dollars a barrel in New York

West Texas crude for February delivery fell Tuesday afternoon on the New York Mercantile Exchange to 29.93, the lowest intraday price since December, 2003, according to Bloomberg news. It was the first time in 12 years the price slipped below the psychological threshold. The decline extends a 70 per cent drop in the price of West Texas crude oil since June 2014, Bloomberg reported.

Volatility in Chinese markets since the beginning of the new year has not only driven a rout in global equities, but also fuelled concern that the turmoil will curb fuel demand. In addition, US stockpiles remained more than 120 million barrels above the five-year average.

On Tuesday, Brazil's crisis-plagued state oil giant Petrobras slashed its planned investments and production targets Tuesday, as plunging crude prices and a strong dollar continued wreaking havoc on its books.

Petrobras, which is at the centre of a massive corruption scandal, has cut its planned investments for the period 2015 to 2019 by 24.5 per cent, to $98.4 billion, it said in a statement.

It also lowered its production target for this year by 1.8 per cent, to 2.1 billion barrels a day.