Brent and WTI crude oil futures dipped on Monday as concerns of a looming trade dispute between China and the US weighed on global markets.

In Asia, Shanghai crude oil futures debuted strongly, both in terms of volume and prices, with front-month contracts soaring as much as 6 percent as investors bought into the world's newest financial oil trading instrument.

Looming over oil markets, however, was the possibility of a full-blown trade war between China and the US, which battered Asian shares on the CSI300 index on Monday.

The falls came after US President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion worth of imports from China.

This weighed on crude oil futures as well.

For example, US West Texas Intermediate  crude futures were traded at $65.42 a barrel at 16:42, down 32 cents, or 0.49 percent, from their previous close.

Brent crude futures were at $70.18 per barrel, down 27 cents, or 0.40 percent from their previous close.

Crude was also weighed by a rise in the number of US rigs drilling for oil to a three-year high of 804, implying further rises in production, which has already jumped by a quarter since mid-2016 to 10.4 million barrels per day.