Commodities: Crude plunges on burgeoning Libya, Nigeria output

Crude-oil futures went for a skate lower on Tuesday as traders sold the black liquid aggressively on renewed fears of oversupply, this stoked by burgeoning output from Libya and Nigeria and also US shale pumping concerns.

At 15:19 BST, Nymex-priced West Texas Intermediate crude plunged 3.05% to $42.85 a barrel. Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent dived 2.77% to $45.61 a barrel.

"The assumption that extended Opec supply cuts would underpin the oil price is unravelling by the day," said Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at London Capital Group.

"We would expect US crude to test $40 per barrel before any hopes of a sustainable recovery in oil prices," he said.

Hopes were now on the summer driving season drawing down US oil stores and easing some of the supply glut concerns.

Lawler added that Russian oil minister Novak's rubbishing of an emergency Opec/non-Opec meeting did not help the pricing, either.

"Brent crude is down $10 per barrel in less than a month so if they (Opec) really aren't planning an emergency meeting, perhaps they should."

All of this followed recent data at the weekend that revealed a still-rising US rig count -- for the 22nd consecutive week -- and comes ahead of this week's US stores data.

While Libya and Nigeria were exempt from Opec's production pledge, their feed into the global market did nothing to lessen the now chronic global glut.

Opec has already extended its output cap into 2018, but the market received this as an insufficient measure given the supply overhang.

Production from cartel Opec rose in May thanks to greater output from Nigeria, Libya and Iraq.

Libya's output rose over 50,000 barrels a day to 885,000 bpd, a source told Reuters. Exports of Nigeria's Bonny Light crude oil were set to rise 62,000 bpd in August, Reuters said.

John Kilduff, founding partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital, told CNBC that crude prices were "most definitely" heading to $40 a barrel, and would likely dip into the upper $30s.

Kilduff said the market appeared to be turning lower partially due to tanker-tracking data showing unsold crude oil cargoes from Nigeria, further noting concerns about US output.

Turning to metals, on Comex, gold lost 0.27% to $1243.3 an ounce. Silver fell 0.68% to $16.39 an ounce. Copper was 1.32% lower at 257.15 cents a pound.

On London Metals Exchange, three-month industrial metals were mostly ahead. Zinc rose 1.15%, copper added 1.08% and aluminum gained 1.04%. Tin, however, lost 0.46%.