Oil prices slid on Monday after a meeting between major producing nations on a proposed output freeze fell apart, leaving the world grappling with an excess of unwanted crude.

Oil exporting nations, including non-OPEC Russia, had gathered in the Qatari capital of Doha for what was expected to be the rubber-stamping of a deal to stabilize output at January levels until October.

But the deal crumbled when OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite its repeated assertions it would not do so until it had reached pre-sanctions levels of output.

"Saudi Arabia intentionally torpedoed the agreement and was willing to accept its failure. This has severely damaged the credibility of oil producers in general and of OPEC in particular," Commerzbank said in a note.

Brent crude futures fell almost 7 percent in early trading on Monday before bouncing back to US$41.70 per barrel at 1335 GMT (0835 EDT), down 3.35 percent since their last settlement.

Benchmark U.S. crude futures were down by 3.62 percent at US$38.90 a barrel after falling as low as US$37.61 earlier in the day.