Crude oil futures tumbled below $99 a barrel Wednesday morning amid global demand jitters.
Prices have fallen sharply over the past week, with scary economic data out of China offsetting concerns about the situation in Ukraine.
Crude oil was down $1.64 at $98.42 a barrel, its lowest since early February.
Official data from the Energy Department is expected to reveal a large build in U.S. crude oil inventories at 10:30 am ET.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.6 million barrels in the week to March 7 to 367 million, industry data from the American Petroleum Institute showed last night.
In economic news, Eurozone industrial production declined unexpectedly due to a drop in energy output.
Industrial output fell 0.2 percent month-on-month in January. Economists were expecting production to expand 0.5 percent.
