January Brent fell 1 per cent to $68.93 and was on course to close below $70 for the first time since 2010. On the other side of the Atlantic, Nymex January West Texas Intermediate dropped 1.5 per cent to $65.82. Brent, the international crude market, dropped by almost 20 per cent last month after Opec decided to maintain its 30m-a-day production ceiling, in a significant departure from its traditional policy of cutting production to prop up falling oil prices. By resisting calls for a cut, analysts said Saudi Arabia, Opec’s largest producer and effective leader, was signalling that lower prices were the cure for an oversupplied market.