* Oil falls as economic gloom continues
* U.S. oil data forecast to show increases in inventories
* OPEC unlikely to act at November meeting
(Update prices)
By Ikuko Kao
LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Oil prices on Wednesday dipped,
touching a fresh 22-month low, due to increasing signs of
weakening demand as economic gloom deepened.
U.S. light crude <CLc1> fell as low as $53.30 a barrel, the
cheapest price since January 2007. It was trading 38 cents lower
at $54.01 by 1227 GMT.
London's Brent crude <LCOc1> fell $1.23 to as low as $50.61
and it was trading 44 cents lower at $51.40.
Oil has slid by about one-third from its record highs above
$147, struck in July.
"With no end in sight for the global economic turmoil,
traders continue to focus on the lack of demand heading into
2009," said Jonathan Kornafel, Asia director of U.S.-based
options trader Hudson Capital Energy.
"It is becoming quite evident that demand may actually drop
from 2008 to 2009."
European and Asian shares fell as Sumitomo Mitsui Financial
Group, Japan's No.3 bank, joined larger rivals seeking to
bolster its capital in the face of the worst financial crisis in
80 years. Markets fretted over the stricken U.S. car industry.
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European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the
deep crisis was the first time since World War Two that the
finances of the industrial world have been at stake.
The oil market was also closely watching U.S. weekly oil
data due out at 1535 GMT on Wednesday as well as any moves from
the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at
their meeting next week.
Analysts in a Reuters poll expected the U.S. oil data would
show an increase of 800,000 barrels of crude stocks, and a
400,000 barrel rise in gasoline inventories. Distillate stocks,
which include heating oil and diesel, were forecast to have
risen 600,000 barrels. [].
The American Automobile Association (AAA) motor group said
on Tuesday that U.S. travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving
holiday next week would decline for the first time since 2002.
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Members of OPEC, the source of one-third of the world's oil
supplies, have shown signs that the group is unlikely take any
steps at its meeting in Cairo on Nov. 29.
The group is very concerned about worsening world economic
slowdown but is unlikely to take action on output, OPEC
President Chakib Khelil said in remarks published in El Khabar
newspaper on Wednesday.
"The Cairo meeting would be an internal debate, and I do not
think we would take a decision, because we will not have all
information, and I do not think there is any need for action
before making sure that all members have applied the previous
decisions," he was quoted in El Khabar as saying.[]
Nigeria Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said his country was
not pushing for further cuts, following the one made at the
previous meeting in September. []
(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt in Singapore; editing by Karen
Foster)
