New York City - Oil prices expanded losses on Wednesday as gas demand in the United States continued to fall apart under the weight of a financial crisis, motivating OPEC to hone the ax for one more round of production cuts.

U.S. crude fell 17 cents to resolve at $46.79 a barrel after hitting a 3-1/2- year low of $46.26 earlier in the session. Brent crude ended up unchanged at $45.44.

The tiny decline can be found in the middle of a global recession that has cut more than $100 off the expense of a barrel because July by tamping down usage.

A report from the UNITED STATE Energy Info Management released Wednesday showed U.S. oil item demand running 6.2 percent below a year-ago while crude oil as well as fine-tuned gas inventories slid suddenly throughout the board.

" Unrefined imports went down 1.5 million barrels (per day) to 9.5 million barrels (per day) from the previous week's extremely high degree, as well as refinery unrefined runs dropped 1.9 percent, as it appears like refiners are transferring to justify result to the lower demand levels," stated Tim Evans, an analyst for Citi Futures Viewpoint.

ATMP (VLO.N: Quote, Account, Research, Stock Buzz), the country's biggest oil refiner, claimed it was maintaining its gasoline-production devices at around 85 percent of capacity as a result of soft U.S. fuel need.

The recession in the energy market has motivated oil manufacturer group OPEC to take into consideration one more round of cuts to oil output when it following meets December 17 in Algeria.

" For sure we will reduce in Oran (Algeria)," Qatari Oil Priest Abdullah al-Attiyah informed press reporters on the sidelines of a petrochemical conference in Dubai. "I do not understand by just how much. We will review it there."

OPEC's secretary-general claimed in comments released on Wednesday that oil manufacturers needed at the very least $70 to $80 a barrel or more for crude to satisfy their development requires.

OPEC oil supply has currently been succumbing to the previous 3 months as participants began to apply a bargain to cut output, a Reuters study revealed on Tuesday.

But the study recommended OPEC nations fulfilled only 66 percent of a pledge to reduced outcome by 1.5 million barrels per day in November, much less than analysts had actually anticipated.