NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices had another jaw-dropping skid Wednesday, sending the price of U.S. crude oil below $21 a barrel for the first time since 2002.

Benchmark U.S. oil lost $6.58, or 24.4%, to settle at $20.37 a barrel. Brent, the international standard, dropped $2.85, or 13.4%, to close at $24.88.

Investors are betting that demand for oil will be down sharply as factories close and as people have put off vacations and business trips in order to stay home and minimize the risk of spreading the coronavirus.

Those concerns of weaker oil demand have been heightened in recent weeks as economists have issued forecasts predicting that the economic fallout from the viral outbreak will push the U.S. into a recession in the second quarter.

Oil prices have also been hurt by large producers engaging in a price war and refusing to ease back on how many barrels of oil they produce, pushing prices lower.