(Updates prices, adds OPEC Secretary General comments)
* Oil down more than $1 after no cut at OPEC weekend meet
* OPEC to discuss 1 to 1.5 million bpd cut later in Dec
* Saudi Arabia cites $75 a barrel as "fair price"
SINGAPORE, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Oil fell more than a dollar on
Monday, towards $53 a barrel, after producer cartel OPEC
decided to delay a decision on a third supply cut to its next
meeting later in December as economic woes squeeze oil demand.
Gulf producers want to see strict compliance with recent
output curbs of 2 million barrels per day (bpd) before
considering further cuts when the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets in Algeria on Dec. 17.
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U.S. light crude for January delivery <CLc1> fell $1.01 to
$53.42 a barrel by 0655 GMT, after having dipped below $53
earlier.
Oil settled down 1 cent at $54.43, against its Wednesday
settlement in thin trading in a shortened, post-Thanksgiving
holiday session on Friday.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> slid $1.14 to $52.35.
"We certainly weren't surprised with OPEC's decision not to
cut at the Cairo meeting. However, there will most likely be
repercussions and we fully expect the market to test the $50
level again," said Jonathan Kornafel, Asia director of Hudson
Capital Energy.
Delegates said ministers discussed how much more they
needed to cut in December. Most, including Gulf producers led
by Saudi Arabia, saw a requirement to trim another 1 to 1.5
million bpd.
Asked whether there would be a cut decision in Algeria,
OPEC Secretary General al-Badri told reporters in Tehran:
"There will be action there ... It will be a good amount, a
good quantity," without naming a specific figure.
[]
Prices lost almost 20 percent in November, after a drop of
32 percent in October, the biggest monthly fall ever, despite
OPEC's two supply cuts since September aimed at taking around 2
million bpd out of the market.
"Evidently there is too much oil around. U.S. imports
surged 10 percent for the week. [] The longer OPEC waits to
cut supplies, the higher stocks rise and the longer we think
it'll take for fundamentals to tighten once the tide does
turn," Jan Stuart, an economist with UBS in New York, said in a
weekly U.S. oil data report.
Oil has tumbled from record highs over $147 a barrel struck
in July as demand in the United States and other large consumer
nations has slumped amid an economic crisis.
In a rare move, Saudi Arabia on Saturday cited $75 a barrel
as a "fair price" for oil in order to keep the more expensive
new projects at the margins of world supply on track, the first
time in years that the world's biggest exporter has identified
a target for crude prices.[]
(Additional reporting by Osamu Tsukimori on Tokyo)
(Reporting by Maryelle Demongeot; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez)
