Oil prices tumbled more than 5 percent on Monday as markets worried about a China-led global economic slowdown that would drastically hit oil consumption at a time of plentiful supply.

U.S. light crude closed down $2.21, or 5.5 percent, at $38.24 a barrel, which was the lowest since February 2009. Steep losses last week capped the contract's longest weekly losing streak since 1986.

was trading down $2.70, or about 6 percent, at $42.80 a barrel, after hitting a session low of $42.51, its weakest since March 11, 2009.



Chinese stock markets suffered their biggest one-day drop since the financial crisis, stirring huge sell-offs in global equities and commodities, with more than 400 billion euros ($465 billion) wiped off .

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"Today's falls are not about oil market fundamentals. It's all about China," Carsten Fritsch, senior oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, told Reuters Global Oil Forum. "The fear is of a hard landing and that things get out of the control of the Chinese authorities."