At 10:11 am (0211 GMT) New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, was 23 cents lower at 56.03 dollars a barrel after sinking 2.50 dollars to 56.26 dollars a barrel in late US trade as the markets reviewed conflicting reports on OPEC's exports.

Brent North Sea crude for January delivery declined 13 cents to 58.41 dollars a barrel after dropping 2.07 dollars in London trade. The December contract expired at 59.46 dollars on Wednesday.

Reuters from London adds: Oil slipped under $56 on Friday to its lowest level in a year, deepening a $2.50 rout in the previous session driven by fund selling and pressure from high fuel inventories in the United States, the leading oil consumer.

Selling spanned commodity markets and drew further momentum ahead of the expiry of the front-month U.S. crude futures contract at the close of trade on Monday.

U.S. crude was down 76 cents at $55.50 a barrel at 1100 GMT after hitting its lowest level since November 18 last year at $55.48. The price has fallen over 29 percent from the record of $78.40 in July.

London Brent crude was 48 cents lower at $58.06.

"There is also an accumulation of news: mild weather, a slowing economy and fairly ineffectual noises from Opec about cutting," said Andrew Hutchinson at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.

He said the decline could also be related to falls in base metals, such as copper and aluminium, which have also lost around 8 percent from last Friday's opening levels in part because of higher levels of inventory.

Oil markets have traded in a roughly $58-$62 barrel range for around six weeks, the longest period of range-bound trading since the same time a year ago.

Traders say prices could now be breaking below that band, dragged down by ample stocks, relatively mild weather and doubts about the ability of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to enforce output cuts.

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Peak winter demand has begun to eat into US stocks of refined products, but overall crude inventories are 13.8 million barrels higher than a year ago.

While lower oil prices have spurred product consumption, warmer than usual weather has sapped heating oil demand.