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Brent then edged up 24 cents to $48.85 a barrel at 0705 ET,
after dipping to $48.24 earlier in the session, the lowest in
over six months.
U.S. crude was down 2 cents at $43.85 after hitting an intraday
low of $43.35 in Asian trading. Both benchmarks have been
falling for six weeks, hampered by a supply glut.
"The market remains in a battle between the bearish current
fundamentals and the perception that the market will begin to
rebalance in the not too distant future," said Dominick
Chirichella of the Energy Management Institute.
China's crude oil imports rose by 4.1 percent in July from June,
but this bullish news was partly offset by broader trade figures
showing an 8.3 percent slump in exports, stoking fears that
Chinese economic activity was slowing.
Carsten Fritsch, an oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt,
said that China had probably taken advantage of much lower oil
prices to rebuild its stocks in July: "They had fallen to a
one-year low in June on account of record oil processing, so a
top-up was needed."
Since the start of August, however, there have been signs that
Asian crude demand is slowing.
Olivier Jakob, an oil analyst at Petromatrix in Switzerland,
cited the fact that the supertanker Sea King, which set off for
South Korea with North Sea Forties crude in July, has since
stayed in Europe.
He added that China was selling some Angolan cargoes and there
had been talk of run cuts at Asian refineries.
Two OPEC delegates said the group had no plans to hold an
emergency meeting to discuss the drop in oil prices before its
next scheduled gathering in December.
"Up to the December 4 OPEC meeting there is no reason for OPEC
to hold back production," Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities
analyst at SEB, said in a note.
He suggested that the market could test the intraday low for
Brent crude of $45.19 from Jan. 19. "The market is still running
a surplus. OPEC is not holding back and U.S. oil rigs have been
rising for the last three weeks," he said.
(Additional reporting by Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo; Editing by
Dale Hudson and William Hardy)
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