West Texas Intermediate for March delivery decreased as much as $1.24 to $44.35 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was down 57 cents to $45.02 at 12:14 p.m. London time. The contract lost 72 cents to $45.59 on Jan. 23, the lowest close since March 2009. The volume of all futures traded was 24 percent above the 100-day average for the time of day.
Brent for March settlement slid as much as $1.22, or 2.5 percent, to $47.57 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It gained 27 cents to $48.79 on Jan. 23. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $3.14 to WTI.
