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Oil tumbled to the lowest level in nine months, pulling energy stocks down, amid growing concerns that OPEC-led output cuts are failing to ease a global supply glut.

Futures declined 2.2 percent in New York, entering a bear market for the first time since August, as investors focus on rising production from countries that are not part of OPECs deal.Libya is pumping the most crude in four years, and the amount of oil stored in tankers reached a 2017 high earlier this month. U.S. drillers have added oil rigs for 22 straight weeks. An industry report on a decline in American inventories didnt improve the mood.

We still have a lot of oil, Tariq Zahir, a New York-based commodity fund manager at Tyche Capital Advisors, said by telephone. Libya is coming on a little bit more than people expected. And the bottom line is that the glut thats here in the United States doesnt look to be slowing anytime soon, he said.

West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, dropped 21 percent from a close of $54.45 on Feb. 23, entering a bear market, which kicks in when settlement prices fall at least 20 percent from their peak.

Oil has stayed below $45 a barrel since last week as supplies in the U.S. remain plentiful and the oil rig count rises to the highest since April 2015. WTI for July delivery, which expires Tuesday, fell 97 cents to settle at $43.23, the lowest since mid-September. Total volume traded was about 35 percent above the 100-day average.

Futures were little changed from the settlement after the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute was said to report that U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 2.72 million barrels last week, while gasoline supplies rose by 346,000 barrels. The more-active August WTI contract traded at $43.42 a barrel at 4:42 p.m. after settling at $43.51.

Brent for August settlement slipped 89 cents to settle at $46.02 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.51 to August WTI.

People are getting a little fatigued waiting for the production cuts to have effect, Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts, said by telephone. Traders are very nervous about the near-term prospects.

The S&P 500 Energy Index declined as much as 2.3 percent, with Hess Corp. slumping as much as 6.8 percent. Exxon Mobil Corp. slipped as much as 1.6 percent, while Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc both fell more than 2 percent.

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Another factor feeding trader angst is a rise in the number of drilled-but-uncompleted wells in U.S. oilfields. At the end of May, there were5,946 wells in this category, the most in at least three years, according to estimates by the EIA. In the last month alone, explorers drilled 125 more wells in the Permian Basin than they would open, meaning production could surge when they turn on the spigots.

U.S. crude inventories probably shrank by 1.2 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before Energy Information Administration data Wednesday. Yet,American production climbed to 9.33 million barrels a day through June 9, near the highest since August 2015. Gasoline supplies probably rose 500,000 barrels last week, the survey showed.

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Oil Slips to Nine-Month Low on Signs Global Glut Will Persist - Bloomberg