US January crude futures were 31 cents lower at $57.05 a barrel, while January London Brent was 33 cents lower at $54.55. "Traders are not in hurry to buy, as we seem to have sufficient supplies plus mild weather," said Naohiro Namura, vice president of Mizuho Corporate Bank's derivative business development team.
Demand for heating oil in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer, is expected to be about 20 percent below normal this week thanks to forecast mild weather.
"The market is driven by weather now, and we don't seem to have any other factors (to move the market). The prices would remain rangebound until we have fresh US inventory data," Namura said. Analysts in a Reuters preliminary survey predicted that US crude inventories probably rose slightly last week amid stronger imports even as refineries gobbled up more oil to make gasoline and distillates.
The eight analysts polled forecast on average that US crude oil stocks rose by more than 200,000 barrels last week. US crude stocks are already 34.2 million barrels above last year's level and well above the average for this time of year, government data shows.
Distillate stocks were seen rising by almost 800,000 barrels. It is already up 3.4 million barrels from last year, with heating oil stocks up 5 million barrels.
The Energy Information Administration will release its petroleum inventory report for the week to November 25 on Wednesday at 10:30 am EST (1530 GMT).
Adding downward pressures on the market, Opec signalled again that it would likely keep supplies steady, after a 20 percent slump in US crude prices from an end-August record of $70.85.
The cartel is due to meet in Kuwait on December 12, but it is not likely to cut its 30 million barrels per day output despite plenty of fuel in stock for the start of winter in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Consuming nations have repeatedly called on Opec to do its utmost to bring down prices that have acted as a brake on economic growth. Hurricane-hit oil production in the US Gulf of Mexico, which boosted oil prices to record highs in end-August, was steadily recovering.
As of Monday, oil production in the Gulf of Mexico had recovered to almost 60 percent of the normal 1.5 million-bpd after the devastating storms in August and September. Onshore, three refineries remained off line.