Oil prices fell around 2% on Tuesday, pressured lower by fears over the impact of U.S.-China trade war on the global economy and rising OPEC output.
U.S. crude was down $1.36, or 2.5%, at $53.73 a barrel by 08:22 AM ET (12:22 GMT), while international benchmark Brent was down 97 cents at $57.66 a barrel.
The U.S. on Sunday imposed 15% tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods and China began imposing new duties on U.S. crude oil, in the latest escalation in the prolonged trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
Although U.S. President Donald Trump has said both sides would still meet for talks later this month, there was no agreement over the weekend on the timing.
Concerns over the global economic fallout mounted after data on Tuesday showed that South Korea's economy expanded less than estimated during the second quarter due to weaker exports.
"Oil will struggle to make substantial headway topside this week with no progress on trade talks or meetings even, soft data from Asia and a possible cracking of OPEC's resolve to control production," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA.
Output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose in August for the first month this year as higher supply from Iraq and Nigeria outweighed cuts by top producer Saudi Arabia and losses caused by U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Russian oil production in August rose to 11.294 million barrels per day (bpd), topping the rate Moscow has pledged to cap output at under a pact with other producers and hitting its highest since March, data showed on Monday.
OPEC, Russia and other non-members, known as OPEC+, agreed in December to reduce supply by 1.2 million bpd from Jan. 1 this year.
Data due this week on U.S. inventory levels will be delayed by a day to Wednesday and Thursday due to the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Monday.
"What's bad for the outlook for global growth is bad for oil at the moment and only big draws in inventories can delay that drift lower," said Greg McKenna, strategist at McKenna Macro.
--Reuters contributed to this report
