Oil fell back towards $62 today after Opec member Nigeria appeared to be alone in its decision to trim output to stem a two-month price slide.
US crude shed 52 cents to $62.24 a barrel earlier this morning, deepening losses of 20 cents the previous session. London Brent crude lost 69 cents to $61.85.
Despite consultations with other Opec producers, Nigeria, the world's eighth largest exporter, seemed to be unilaterally cutting supplies by 5 per cent beginning October 1st.
Oil in New York has lost about 20 per cent from a July peak of $78.40, the steepest drop since the 1991 Gulf War.
Although some Opec members have been signalling that the cartel will trim output, the market has been dominated by a string of bearish data, limiting the impact of Opec's rumblings.
The recent spate of weak economic data has begun to sow doubts about the sustainability of US economic growth in late 2006 and early 2007.
Official data yesterday showed that US economic growth has decelerated more sharply than expected in the second quarter. The world's largest economy grew at a revised 2.6 per cent annual rate in the second quarter, slower than the 2.9 per cent forecast a month earlier and about half of first quarter's 5.6 per cent clip.
The political limbo over the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, has also added pressure to oil prices, analysts say.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday he had failed to reach a deal with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator on Tehran's atomic plans, but they had paved the way for further talks.