Crude-oil futures traded near multiyear lows in Asian trade Friday after sharp overnight losses that traders say has reinforced bearish market sentiment and potentially set the stage for further declines. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $74.28 a barrel at 0345 GMT, up $0.07 in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.56 to $78.05 a barrel.

Both oil benchmarks–Nymex West Texas Intermediate crude and Brent crude–are trading near their lowest level since September 2010.

“The further price drop is certainly a reflection of an entrenched bearish market sentiment that is rooted in doubts about OPEC’s willingness to respond to rising non-OPEC supply and weaker-than-anticipated demand growth by reducing output,” said analyst Tim Evans at Citi Futures.

While a production cut at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ meeting on Nov. 27 seems likely, the new lows in oil prices have set back the timetable for establishing price supports and prices will now have to break above $85.50 a barrel to signal an upward price correction, Mr. Evans said in a report.

Ministers from the OPEC member countries of Venezuela and Iran have embarked on a tour of other OPEC nations to build a consensus for higher oil prices ahead of their meeting in less than two weeks, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Several countries including Iran and Venezuela need prices above current levels to balance their government budgets.

“The dip in the price of Brent below $80 per barrel in the last 24 hours is consistent with our long-held view that the world will soon be awash with oil,” said Julian Jessop, head of commodities research at Capital Economics.

He said, however, global oil prices look set to hit $70 much sooner than it had anticipated.

Later Friday, Paris-based energy watchdog the International Energy Agency is set to publish its monthly oil market report. Thursday, weekly U.S. crude stockpiles showed a drop of 1.7 million barrels, but this failed to prop up oil prices.