LONDON, Nov 4: Oil prices continued their slide on Tuesday after a period of unusually warm weather enveloped the United States, reducing expected demand for heating fuel.

The price of Brent North Sea crude oil for December delivery lost 26 cents to $27.10 per barrel in late deals.

New York’s reference light sweet crude December contract dipped 24 cents to $28.66 per barrel in early trading.

Analysts said the effect was being carried over from the previous day’s US trade.

“The market is tapering off a little bit today. There was late fund selling on the NYMEX on Monday — this is dragging Brent lower,” said trader Lee Elliott from GNI-Man Financial

“The warm weather across the US has depressed product demand.”

One calming influence on prices came after Libya’s prime minister said that the industry cartel Opec did not need to adjust production quotas at its next meeting in December if global crude prices stay within agreed levels.

“As long as the oil price remains inside the $22-28 per barrel range, there is no need to change anything in December,” Shukri Ghanem told an oil conference in London.—AFP