Oil prices extend fall despite record China imports

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Global oil prices continued the week's rout with benchmark Brent crude falling for a fourth consecutive session on Tuesday to its lowest in almost six years, despite China reporting record crude imports.

Both Brent and U.S. crude are at their weakest since early 2009 after dropping for seven straight weeks as oversupply clashes with slowing demand. They have plunged almost 60 percent since June last year.

"Oversupply and weak demand still plagues the oil market. These fundamental factors ... will continue to push it down if (they) do not change," Singapore-based Phillip Futures said in a note.

February Brent crude fell to a low of $46.39 a barrel before edging back to $46.53 by 0550 GMT, still down 90 cents since its last settlement. U.S. crude for February was at $45.35 per barrel, down 72 cents, after hitting a session low of $45.18.

The price rout comes as banks slash their oil price outlooks.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs cut their average forecast for Brent in 2015 to $50.40 a barrel from $83.75. They lowered their outlook for U.S. crude to $47.15 a barrel from $73.75, saying it would need to stay near $40 for most of the first half of 2015 before it would hold up shale oil investments.

Australia's Macquarie bank said it expected Brent to hover around $50-60 per barrel in the first half of the year, and then to rally to $85 per barrel in late 2015 as "global oil supply-demand balances tighten".

Dutch bank ABN Amro also cuts its outlook, seeing an average Brent price of $60 per barrel in 2015 and $55 for U.S. WTI crude.

The slight price recovery following the new lows was a result of record Chinese crude imports for December, which rose above 7 million barrels a day for the first time.

(Editing by Ed Davies and Joseph Radford)