Oil prices fell below $34 a barrel today on the continued gloomy outlook for global energy demand and as traders sold the expiring benchmark contract due to a lack of space at a key U.S. storage facility.

By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for February delivery was down $3.14 to $33.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The February contract expires today. Its last official settlement was $36.51 on Friday, as U.S. markets were closed Monday due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Nevertheless, electronic trading continued during the holiday and the February contract fell $1.96 to $34.55.

The February contract has fallen about a third in two weeks, in part because burgeoning supplies in Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for the Nymex contract, have left investors with little space to store crude, forcing them to sell.

Traders say some oil firms are storing crude on rented tankers.