Oil prices fell more than $2 a barrel on Tuesday to their sessions lows, extending the previous day's slide, as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank rattled equities markets and sparked fears of a fresh financial crisis.

Brent crude futures were down $1.11 or 1.3% to $79.66 a barrel by 1256 GMT, having earlier touched a low of $78.76. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) were down $1.24 or 1.6% to $73.56 a barrel, off a low of $72.69.

On Monday, Brent and WTI fell to their lowest since early January and December respectively. Oil prices dropped alongside a continued slide in equities markets.

Commerzbank analysts forecast high volatility in the energy markets in the coming days.

"We see Monday’s developments around the regional U.S. banks as more noise than news for commodity markets, and it should not have any meaningful medium- to longer-term impact," said UBS analyst Carsten Menke.

The sudden shutdown of SVB Financial (SIVB.O) triggered concerns about risks to other banks resulting from the U.S. Federal Reserve's sharp interest rate hikes over the last year.

Traders now no longer expect a 50-basis point (bps) rate hike next week, with projections currently suggesting a 25 bps rise.

A softer hike could mean the dollar weakening , which in turn is a bullish signal for oil prices. The Federal Reserve's next two-day meeting starts next Tuesday.

U.S. consumer prices increased 0.4% in February as expected, which would lower the year-on-year increase in the CPI to 6.0% in February and mark the smallest year-on-year rise since September 2021.

Meanwhile, consumer inflation in China, the world's biggest oil importer, slowed to the lowest rate in a year in February.

In a monthly report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) further raised its forecast for Chinese oil demand growth in 2023, although it left the global total steady.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) will publish its monthly report on Wednesday. IEA/S

On the supply side, the American Petroleum Institute is expected to release industry data on U.S. oil inventories at 1630 ET/2030 GMT.

Six analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories rose by about 600,000 barrels last week.