* U.S. weekly and monthly oil demand data bearish
* Eyes on OPEC informal meeting in Cairo on Saturday
(Updates prices, adds comment)
By Chris Baldwin
LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Oil fell to around $53 a barrel
on Thursday as a holiday weekend in the United States and an
upcoming OPEC consultative meeting limited trade.
Oil fundamentals are weak, with U.S. crude stocks rising
sharply and oil demand in the United States falling in September
to its lowest level for any month in more than a decade.
U.S. crude <CLc1> was at $53.16 a barrel, down $1.28, at
1324 GMT, having earlier dipped to a low of $52.62, erasing some
of the $3.67 gains made on Wednesday.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell $1.28 to $52.64.
Venezuela's oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, on Wednesday said
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries might
agree to cut production at its special informal meeting on
Saturday in Cairo.
But Ecuador's Oil Minister Derlis Palacios poured cold water
on that when he told a Quito radio station the Cairo meeting was
preparatory in nature, and OPEC would only be discussing what
measures to take when they next meet in December.
Both Venezuela and Libya, which are leading advocates in
OPEC of earlier action to support prices, have pushed for the
producer group to decide quickly on an output cut of at least 1
million barrels per day.
Analysts say an output cut is coming, although probably at a
December meeting in Algeria rather than in Egypt this weekend.
"Prices have held steady this week, so there's no rush to go
in and do it," said Mike Wittner, global head of oil research at
Societe Generale.
FALLING DEMAND
U.S. weekly crude stocks rose by a hefty 7.3 million barrels
last week, well above forecasts of an 800,000 barrel increase,
the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on
Wednesday. []
Total U.S. product demand over the past four weeks was down
6.6 percent from year-ago levels, while September oil demand
fell by 12.8 percent versus a year ago to its lowest point in 12
years, the EIA said.
The NYMEX trading floor is closed on Thursday for the
Thanksgiving Day holiday, though Globex trading continues. On
Friday the NYMEX session in New York will close at 1:30 p.m. EST
(1839 GMT), an hour earlier than usual.
The holiday is traditionally one of the busiest periods of
travel and shopping in the United States, though this year, on
the back of glum economic data, analysts say driving and
spending will be much lower.
Global demand is expected to decline by 20,000 barrels per
day (bpd) each in 2008 and 2009, the first drop in a generation,
that would leave it at 86.01 million bpd then, a poll of
analysts found on Wednesday. []
Analysts said a sharp move upwards on Wednesday, when oil
jumped more than 7 percent, was largely due to a rally in U.S.
equities, which are acting as a barometer of consumer sentiment.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> has risen 15.6
percent in the last four days, the largest four-day percentage
gain since 1932, after Europe proposed a $200 billion stimulus,
and China cut interest rates by the biggest margin in 11 years.
[]
(Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson; editing by James
Jukwey)
