* Oil falls to lowest since February 2005
* European central banks cut interest rates
(Adds Europe interest rate cuts, Iran comment, updates
prices)
By Jane Merriman
LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Oil pared some losses on Thursday
after an early fall below $46 a barrel to its lowest price in
nearly four years, in response to the bleak outlook for the
world economy and oil demand.
Oil prices have dropped more than $100 a barrel from an
all-time high of $147.27 hit in July.
U.S. light crude for January delivery <CLc1> was down 57
cents to $46.22 a barrel by 1436 GMT. It earlier touched a low
of $45.30, the lowest since Feb. 9, 2005.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> was down 67 cents at $44.77.
Oil's fall since July has echoed the global economy's slide
towards recession and tracked global stock market trends.
"With the oil market looking at equity markets for guidance,
you need these to stabilise first before the oil market itself
can recover," said Harry Tchilinguirian, analyst at BNP Paribas.
"Most days, you look at S&P futures (U.S. equity futures) in
the morning and you get a hint of what crude futures will do,"
he said.
He said supply/demand factors such as OPEC supply cuts and
winter demand did not appear to be on the agenda at the moment.
European central banks cut interest rates on Thursday to try
to restore some vitality to their feeble economies, many of
which are already in recession. []
Sweden's central bank has cut by a record 175 basis points,
the European Central Bank by 75 points and the Bank of England
by 100 points. []
Oil producer group the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries will consider another round of output curbs
to try to defend prices when it next meets on Dec. 17 in
Algeria. []
"It is obvious that the market is oversupplied," said Iran's
OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi. "If you remove oversupply
and produce exactly what the market needs, it would be good for
everybody." []
Oil rose briefly on Wednesday when U.S. Energy Information
Administration data revealed an unexpected fall in fuel
inventories last week in the world's top energy consumer.
Crude stocks, for example, fell 400,000 barrels in the week
to Nov. 28, against an expected 1.7 million barrels build.
[]
Stocks of gasoline and distillates, which include heating
oil, also showed surprise falls.
But U.S. refinery utilization fell 1.9 percentage points to
84.3 percent of capacity against a predicted rise of 0.2
percentage point, pointing to weak demand.
(Additional reporting by Maryelle Demongeot in Singapore;
editing by James Jukwey)
