Crude oil for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 185 cents, or 4.48%, to trade at $39.86 a barrel by 0828 GMT.

Global benchmark Brent was down 183 cents or 4.22% to $41.29 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange after falling as low as $40.58 earlier. Traders said only an oil worker strike in Kuwait had prevented Brent from tumbling below $40 per barrel, while a cut in U.S. drilling down to 2009 levels had prevented steeper falls there.

Benchmark U.S. crude futures were down more than 5 percent at $38.31 a barrel.

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