Brent crude oil hit a fresh five-and-a-half-year low below $55 a barrel in intraday trade on Monday, after a series of data showed Russia and Iraq further worsened a global glut with plentiful supplies in recent months.

Brent crude oil for February delivery eased to as low as $54.85 a barrel, its lowest since May 2009, before pulling back to $54.90 by 1155 GMT, still down $1.52 a barrel. The WTI crude dropped to $51.36 a barrel, also its meanest since May 2009. Both the crude benchmarks have now lost more than a half since mid-2014 and recorded their worst annual fall since 2008 last year.

Sanction-hit Russia’s oil production averaged 10.58 million barrels per day in 2014 — the highest in the post-Soviet era — while monthly exports by Iraq in December scaled their loftiest since 1980. This has underscored concerns that the oil glut, caused by the highest US stocks in at least three decades and Opec’s reluctance to cut output to preserve its market share in the face of growing competition, will continue well into 2015. Compounding producers’ worries, any credible signs of a demand rebound anytime soon remained elusive, as the Chinese and the European economies continue to falter.

A fall in crude oil prices aggravated since November when the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), accounting for roughly 40% of global supplies, chose not to cut production, signalling a price war with producers outside the cartel, especially the US shale oil drillers.

Moreover, the International Energy Agency earlier this month effected another downward revision of global oil demand, saying it would rise only 230,000 barrels a day in 2015, while supply outside Opec is expected to climb by 1.3 million barrels per day to 57.8 million. Demand for Opec crude was forecast to sink by 300,000 bpd next year to 28.9 million.

Compounding investors’ concerns, Morgan Stanley forecast in December that in the worst worst-case scenario, the North Sea crude benchmark could drop to as low as $43 a barrel in the second quarter of next year.

Copper hits four-and-a-half-year low

Copper prices in London declined to a four-and-a-half years trough in intraday trade on Monday, as a stronger dollar and uncertainty about the Chinese demand continue to hurt.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped 1.2% to $6,180 a tonne by 1056 GMT, having hit earlier in the session its meanest since June 2010 at $6,177.50 a tonne.

The dollar traded at its highest since early 2006 against the euro as the single currency dived below $1.20. A strong dollar makes commodities priced in the greenback less attractive to the users of other currencies.