Oil dips below $41 US a barrel, hitting new 6-year low

The price of a barrel of oil closed below the $41 level on Wednesday, dragging the Canadian dollar briefly below 76 cents US in the process.

West Texas Intermediate settled at $40.80 at the end of the trading day in New York, down $1.82 from Tuesday's close.

That's the lowest level that oil has traded at since the spring of 2009, when oil was on its way back up after troughing at $33.98 on Feb. 12 of that year.

The selloff began after data from the U.S. government showed oil inventories rose much more than expected last week. The Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that America now has 456.2 million barrels of oil in storage, close to a record high. The figure was 2.62 million barrels higher than it was the previous week, and disappointing to economists who had been expecting a decline of 820,000 barrels.

"The numbers were a total surprise with crude showing a build when the whole Street was forecasting a draw," Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors told Reuters. "We feel these numbers are not factored in to the current price of spot crude."

Some analysts say there's still a lot more room for prices to fall further. "My view is oil is going to go lower before we find a bottom," said Robert Mark, associate director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier. "Most people who follow the commodity closely expect to see a $30 handle — oil in the 30s — before this is all said and done," he told CBC News.

The Canadian dollar, which is closely tied to the price of oil, sold off on the news, trading down a third of a cent to close at 76.28 cents US. Earlier in the day, it briefly dipped below the 76-cent level.