Oil prices slumped further after Russia failed to offer much hope that it would meet OPEC's demands and join the cartel in making supply cuts.
London Brent blend futures touched a two-and-a-half-year low of $16.65 a barrel and by this afternoon was off 70 cents at $17.04 after OPEC's decision last week to insist that Russia cut its production before the cartel slices supplies again. US light crude fell 89 cents to $17.14.
Russian Energy Minister Mr Igor Yusufov, in a meeting in Moscow on Monday with his Mexican counterpart, offered no new reductions, a Russian Energy Ministry source said.
Of course not, the source said.
The subject of the talks was about making consultations and information exchange between non-OPEC states more active, he added.
Mexican Oil Minister Ernesto Martens is OPEC's closest among independent producers, having already proposed a reduction in Mexico's exports of 100,000 barrels a day, about six percent, to help OPEC. Russia, the world's second biggest oil exporter, has proposed only a tiny reduction of 30,000 bpd, just 0.1 per cent of its three million bpd of exports.
On Sunday in Canada, Russian Finance Minister Mr Alexei Kudrin said Moscow was prepared to negotiate but would not make large reductions.