Oil prices fell for the fourth straight session Monday as traders weighed lowered OECD global growth forecasts and weak Chinese crude imports against abundant supplies.

After losing more than $2 a barrel last week, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in December slid 42 cents to $43.87 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent North Sea crude for December, the global benchmark, slipped to $47.19 a barrel in London, down 23 cents from Friday's settlement.

The Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation trimmed its forecast for global growth this year slightly, to 2.9 percent, but slashed the 2016 estimate 0.3 percentage point to 3.3 percent, citing stagnating trade largely due to a slowdown in China.

China's crude imports fell to about 6.23 million barrels a day in October, the lowest level in five months, Bloomberg News reported.

Tim Evans, an energy futures analyst at Citi Futures, said the OECD report was "at the very least... a limiting factor on how much petroleum demand growth we can expect, in the monthly reports from the DOE, OPEC, and International Energy Agency due out this week."

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia -- whose revenues have been slashed by slumping oil prices -- warned on Monday of a supply crisis after massive energy investments were cancelled because of the sharp decline in oil prices.

"Around $200 billion of investments in energy have been cancelled this year," Saudi vice minister of oil Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told a roundtable meeting for Asian energy ministers in Doha.

He said energy companies are planning to cut between 3.0-8.0 percent of their investments next year.

"This is the first time since the mid-1980s that the oil and gas industry will have cut investment in two consecutive years," Abdulaziz said.

Oil mixed on Asian demand signals
New York (UPI) Nov 9, 2015 - Crude oil prices were mixed in early Monday trading after comments from the Saudi oil ministry that the current market climate could spur demand growth.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the weak energy market should start to attract Asian buyers, who may be drawn in by the "attractiveness" of the current price for crude oil. From the perspective of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, demand from Asian economies should grow from about 16 million barrels per day to nearly 46 million bpd by 2040.

Crude oil prices moved in mixed fashion on the signal of increased future demand. The price for Brent crude oil increased 0.3 percent in early Monday trading to $47.55 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark price for crude oil, retreated 0.15 percent to $44.22.

Markets moved in similar fashion in April when Naimi said Saudi Arabia had enough oil on hand to meet what he expected to be increased demand from China. Saudi Arabia has maintained a high level of oil production despite the slump, arguing it needs to protect its market share in an economy in flux because of the glut of U.S. oil.

Brent at the time of the April comments sold for $65.37 per barrel and WTI was priced at $57.41

Crude oil prices have moved lower for most of 2015 as supplies continue to outweigh demand. Last week, Lee Tillman, the president and chief executive officer at Marathon Oil, said his company expects "oil prices to remain low for a longer period of time."

A series of signs that China was on its way to prolonged contraction added downward pressure to crude oil prices for most of the latter part of 2015. The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 1.6 percent in Monday trading, mirroring gains reported last week after service-sector data showed signs of recovery. That's mixed, however, as Chinese manufacturing data revealed signs of contraction.