Oil fell ahead of a crucial meeting in Vienna on Thursday of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Traders will be looking for a possible agreement to cut production to shore up prices.
The price of crude has tumbled 26% since June as producers kept output stable while demand in Europe and other markets weakened.
Benchmark US crude fell 73 cents, or 1%, to $75.78 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many US refineries, fell 68 cents to close at $79.68 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
In other energy futures trading on the NYMEX, wholesale petrol fell 2.3 cents to $2.033 a gallon, heating oil fell a penny to $2.395 a gallon and natural gas fell 11.5 cents to $4.151 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The slump in energy prices bodes well for the upcoming holiday shopping season, said Jennifer Ellison of San Francisco-based Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough.
She predicts that any money that consumers save at the petrol pump is likely to be spent, rather than saved.
The falling price of oil “affects consumers in a lot of different ways, but most importantly you’ve got more money in your pocket,” she said.
“That has a big impact especially at a time like holiday season when people are spending anyway.”