Assurances by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) of amply supplies during the northern hemispher winter and expectations of a further rise in US interest rates also helped kept prices in check, they said.

At 11:55 am (0355 GMT), New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, was down two cents at 59.74 dollars a barrel from its close of 59.76 dollars in the United States Monday.

Oil shed 1.46 dollars to close below 60 dollars for the first time in three months on Monday in New York. Prices are now around 10 percent lower when compared with a month ago.

Warmer US weather and supply assurances by the 11-member OPEC oil cartel tempered the fallout from a strike threat at Europe's biggest refinery, owned by Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell in the busy Dutch port of Rotterdam.

"Trading is very quiet as the market awaits the weekly US inventory data on Wednesday," said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo.

He said the US Department of Energy is expected to report an increase in stockpiles of crude oil and gasoline (petrol) which should help push prices lower.

"Also, the inventory of heating oil is at a good level for the time being and if temperatures in the northeastern United States are not as cold as predicted, then prices should be going down," he said.

Warmer weather reduces demand for heating fuel in the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer.