Oil prices slumped Tuesday after OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia reportedly said there was no need for further production cuts to prop up the market.

The comments, by Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi, added to growing sentiment that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would not call a special meeting any time soon to discuss further production cutbacks to stem a more than 13-percent slide in prices this year.

"There is no need now (for further cuts) on the basis of what market conditions are," Dow Jones Newswires quoted Naimi as saying after arriving in New Delhi for an international conference organized by India's Oil Ministry.

Benchmark light sweet crude plummeted $1.43 to $51.56 in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after hitting a new 19-month intraday low of $51.25. The price was being compared with Friday's Nymex settlement as the exchange was closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell 76 cents to $52.36 on Tuesday on London's ICE futures exchange.

Heating oil futures slid nearly 2 cents to trade at $1.4860 per gallon; gasoline futures fell 4.3 cents to $1.3890; and natural gas futures dropped 2.9 cents to $6.572 per 1,000 cubic feet.