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The EIA also poured some cold water on oil markets on Wednesday. The agencybelieves that U.S. oil production stood at 9.22 million barrels per day for the week ending on January 1, the third consecutive week of small production increases. Most energy analysts have been predicting that the U.S. would be experiencing sizable production losses at this point. Also, even though overall crude inventories fell by 5.1 million barrels, storage levels at Cushing actually grew to an all-time high for the week ending on January 1, according to Genscape.

In 2015, Goldman Sachs said that it was possible that oil would fall into the $20s per barrel before all was said and done, an estimate that some thought was ridiculous at the time. A few crude benchmarks are already trading at those levels, and WTI and Brent might not be too far behind.