Brent was down 5.8%, or $1.45, to $23.48 a barrel, WTI fell as far as $19.92, near an 18-year low hit earlier this month, and was last trading down 3.8%, or $0.82, at $20.69 a barrel.

A group of six U.S. senators wrote a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week saying Saudi Arabia and Russia “have embarked upon economic warfare against the United States” and were threatening U.S. “energy dominance”.

Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Russian counterpart Alexander Novak have not held any discussions about a joint agreement to balance oil markets, indicating no resolution to the price war.

Oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa region will lose $192 billion in crude income in 2020

Sovereign wealth funds from oil-producing countries mainly in the Middle East and Africa are on course to dump up to $225 billion in equities,

gas prices in Europe and Asia have collapsed to record lows, while the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark tumbled to its lowest since 1995.

Brent was down 40 cents, or 1.5%, at $25.94 a barrel, WTI was up 11 cents, or 0.5%, at $22.71.

Russia ramped up measures to combat the virus on Wednesday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing that next week would be a paid non-working week throughout the country.

U.S. primary energy consumption totaled 100 quadrillion Btu, a 1% decrease from 2018. Natural gas consumption increased 3%, renewable energy consumption and nuclear electric power consumption each increased less than 1%, petroleum consumption decreased less than 1%, and coal consumption decreased 14%.

Brent fell 64 cents, or 2.3%, to $26.75 a barrel, WTI fell 78 cents, or 3.2%, to $23.71 a barrel