Oil’s dismal start to the new year continued on Monday as prices plumbed fresh lows, with Morgan Stanley adding to a growing number of voices warning that prices could slide to $20 a barrel. Brent, the global oil marker, fell by more than $2, or 6 per cent, to $31.48 a barrel in late trading, a level last reached in April 2004. On the other side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate, the US oil benchmark, dropped $1.70 to $31.28 a barrel, a fresh 12-year low. The falls extended to 16 per cent a rout that had seen more than 10 per cent knocked off both benchmarks in the first trading week of 2016. “Oil in the $20s is possible,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Longson in a report that focused on risks posed to commodities by the possibility of China further devaluing its currency. A slowdown in China, whose growth led the rise in global oil demand over the past decade, in recent weeks has added fears of slowing consumption to massive oversupply, even after a 70 per cent price drop over the past 18 months.