Oil falls as economic crisis weighs

Updated at: 0125 PST, Wednesday, November 19, 2008 LONDON: Oil prices fell on Tuesday as part of a wider market downturn due to concerns about global economic weakness.Uncertainty about the fate of talks over aid for General Motors Corp and other U.S. automobile makers fueled worries that helped send U.S. stocks lower. nN18272083U.S. crude traded down 23 cents to $54.72 a barrel by 13:53 p.m. EST (1853 GMT), after dropping as low as $54.13, the lowest level since January 2007.London Brent crude traded down 23 cents at $52.08 a barrel."Crude oil futures moved down with Wall Street. Market fundamentals are very tenuous," said Andy Lebow, broker at MF Global."The oil market is in a major downtrend and moving down with equities confirms there is a lack of confidence in what brought prices up earlier."Oil prices have dropped from record highs above $147 a barrel in July as the mounting economic crisis has clipped fuel demand in big consumer nations such as the United States.The steep drop in prices has prompted some members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to call for more production cuts, after the cartel agreed to remove about 2 million barrels per day from world markets since September.Traditional price hawk Iran has sought another 1 million to 1.5 million bpd in cuts and has called for talks with non-OPEC members on supply curbs.