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 In choppy trade, benchmark Brent crude futures <LCOc1> were down
25 cents at $50.85 by 0656 ET, having fallen as low as $49.66, a
level last seen in May 2009.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we trundle around the $50 mark for a few
sessions as investors consolidate their positions just as they did
when prices hit $60," Sucden analyst Kash Kamal said.
Brent fell in the previous four sessions and is still down 8.6
percent this week. Prices have lost around 55 percent since their
peak above $115 last June as stockpiles of oil mount with no signs
of a cut in production from OPEC.
Demand for oil is also weak, with the outlook for the global economy
remaining subdued.
In the latest sign of economic slowdown, the pace of global business
growth eased to its weakest rate in over a year at the end of 2014,
according to JPMorgan's Global All-Industry Output Index, produced
with Markit.
 The slide in oil prices has increased fears of deflation, which in
turn has further clouded the demand outlook.
In the euro zone consumer prices fell more than expected, and turned
negative in December for the first time since October 2009, a first
estimate by the European statistic office showed.
U.S. futures <CLc1> were up 4 cents to $47.97 a barrel, having
fallen to $46.83, their lowest since April 2009.
"There's a surplus in production of 1-1.5 million barrels per day in
2015 and there's absolutely no sign OPEC will intervene to cut
production at a time of lower demand," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief
commodity analyst at SEB in Oslo.
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He added that there was also little sign that prices at these levels
were likely to have an impact on U.S. shale production.
Shale oil costs are higher than for conventional oil, leading to
speculation that the lower oil price could lead to cutbacks in
production, helping to ease the supply glut.
Nobuyuki Nakahara, a former oil executive and ex-member of the Bank
of Japan's policy board, told Reuters he expected further price
falls.
"Oil prices are likely to keep falling due to slower Chinese growth
and because the years of prices above $100 before the recent plunge
were 'abnormal' historically," he said.
(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore and
Yoshifumi Takemoto in Tokyo; Editing by Michael Urquhart and Susan
Thomas)
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