Global crude futures plunged to fresh lows Thursday amid a swamped market as US production hit a new record and the market mulled Saudi denials of a price war.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for December delivery plunged $2.97, or 3.8 percent, to $74.21, its lowest close since September 17, 2010.

Brent crude for delivery in December dived by $2.46 on the last day of the contract, to $77.92 a barrel in London. It was the first time since September 2010 that Brent had closed below $80.

News that US oil production exceeded nine million barrels per day was “psychologically bearish for the market,” said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.

The United States produced 9.063 million barrels of oil per day in the week ending November 7, the Department of Energy reported Thursday.

That marked the highest production since at least January 1983 when the department began publishing the statistics.

US crude reserves at the oil hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, closely watched by traders because they serve as reference for WTI traded in New York, jumped by 1.7 million barrels last week to 22.5 million barrels.

Markets were still guessing at the path of the OPEC cartel in the face of falling prices.

On Wednesday Ali Al-Naimi, oil minister of OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, told a conference in Mexico that “talk of a price war is a sign of misunderstanding — deliberate or otherwise — and has no basis in reality.”

“We do not seek to politicize oil, nor do we collude against anybody. For us, it is a question of supply and demand. It is purely business,” he said.

OPEC’s next meeting is set for November 27, and some members are pressing for action to firm up prices,

“The prices have to go lower in order to force OPEC to make a decision to cut production,” said Lipow.

“Clearly the economic news from around the world has been worse than expected and those headlines, in conjunction with the rise of US oil and Libya (output), has caused the market to do a complete about-face compared to earlier in the year and fall precipitously,” he said.