UPDATE 9-Oil hits 12-month low, demand outweighs OPEC

                                
 * Financial turmoil heightens demand concern
                                
 * OPEC announces November emergency meeting
                                
 * Dow drops below 9,000 on recession fears
 (Recasts, updates prices, stock market action)
                                
 By Matthew Robinson
                                
 NEW YORK, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell to near 12-month
lows below $85 on Thursday as a wider market slide stirred demand
concerns and outweighed calls by some OPEC members to cut output
to prop up prices.
                                
 The producer group announced it will hold an emergency meeting
on Nov. 18 in Vienna to discuss the impact of the financial crisis
on oil markets, which has helped knock prices from a record peak
over $147 a barrel in July. [ID:nL9214789]
                                
 U.S. crude <CLc1> settled down $2.36 at $86.59 a barrel before
dropping to $84.63 -- its lowest level since Oct. 24, 2007 -- in
post settlement trade when the Dow Jones industrial average
slipped below 9,000.
                                
 London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell $1.70 to settle at $82.66 a
barrel.
                                
 "We're still worried about the demand side of the market. The
(U.S. Energy Information Administration) data from yesterday was
bearish and we might be seeing a second effort to price that in,"
said Tim Evans, an analyst for Citi Futures Perspective.
                                
 U.S. gasoline and crude stocks rose sharply last week as
demand in the world's biggest consumer continued to slow due to
the economic crisis and high fuel costs, the EIA reported on
Wednesday. [EIA/S]
                                
 U.S stocks fell for a seventh straight session on Thursday,
with the Dow sliding below 9,000 for the first time in more than
five years, as investors worried recent moves by authorities
worldwide to thaw frozen credit markets might not be enough to
avert a global recession. [ID:nN09318318]
                                
 Analysts said that, despite Wednesday's coordinated rate cut
by global central banks and other moves to calm investors, there
remained abundant signs credit markets were gridlocked.
                                
 Further pressure on energy prices has come as investors, who
earlier this year piled into oil and other commodities as a hedge
against inflation and the weak dollar, sought to put cash into
safer havens. [ID:nL9731460]
                                
 The slumping economy has prompted analysts to revise downward
their global oil demand growth targets for next year, with the EIA
this week dropping its 2009 projection by 140,000 barrels per
day.
                                
 In addition, No. 2 consumer China -- one of the engines behind
the six-year rally in oil prices -- is expected to halt auto fuel
imports in October for the second month in a row, according to a
Reuters poll. [ID:nSP79730]
                                
 OPEC members Nigeria, Qatar, Libya and Iraq this week floated
the idea of a cut in the group's oil output amid the slowing
demand outlook.
                                
 "The Organization is concerned about the deteriorating
economic conditions with contagion risks," the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries said in a statement announcing the
emergency meeting next month.
                                
 "The continuing turmoil in the financial markets has spread to
many regions and created even more uncertainties for the world
economy."
 (Reporting by Matthew Robinson, Gene Ramos, and Robert Gibbons in
New York; Jane Merriman in London; Annika Breidthardt in
Singapore; editing by Jim Marshall)