LONDON: Oil tumbled Monday a day after top producers failed to reach a deal in Doha to cap output, fanning fresh fears over a supply glut that has plagued the market.

Prices had rebounded last week on hopes the Opec exporters` club and other major players, including Russia, would agree to freeze output levels at Sunday`s meeting.

However, discussions in the Qatari capital floundered and a deal to curb abundant global oil supplies failed to materialise, sending the market lower once again.

Shortly before 1500 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in May sank $1.08 to $39.28 per barrel. Brent crude for June delivery lost 95 cents at $42.15.

The Doha failure `has raised the fear that the current glut and oversupply issue is never going to be solved`, GKFX analyst James Hughes told AFP.

`It has also brought into question the relevance of the Opec cartel, if the most powerful voice in the group cannot affect change.

The long-running oil glut sparked a vicious collapse from above $100 in mid-2014 to 13-year lows of around $27 in February.

Kingpin Saudi Arabia insisted it would not agree to freeze production without the participation of fellow cartel member Iran which boycotted the talks.

`The much-awaited meeting exposed the political rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and (this) ultimately doomed the agreement,` said Barclays oil analyst Miswin Mahesh in a research note.

`Though Iran initially planned to send their Opec minister, his participation was cancelled when the Qataris insisted that all attendees would also be signatories to any deal.

`The political tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran trumped the economics for agreeing to a deal.

In both June and December last year, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries which pumps about 40 per cent of the world`s oil refused to cut output.-AFP