By Myra P. Saefong & Polya Lesova, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures held their ground near $55 a barrel Tuesday, but not before touching a fresh 22-month low as concerns about weakening energy demand amid a global economic slowdown continued to dominate investor sentiment. "Not much in the way of excitement, though crude did post a new low of $54.13 in the overnight session," said Darin Newsom, a senior analyst at DTN. "Then, as is its custom, it rallies off its new lows." There is "no change in what is driving the market as the problematic world financial outlook continues to weigh on demand," he said. Crude oil for December delivery was recently down 16 cents to $54.79 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. Earlier, the contract's intraday low of $54.13 a barrel was the lowest level a front-month crude contract has seen since January 2007. Prices fell 3.7% on Monday. "While we wait for OPEC to cut output, market participants are also looking out for signs of supply cuts elsewhere," said analysts at Sucden Research. Russia's energy minister, Sergei Shmatko, said Tuesday that the world is heading toward a sharp deficit of oil-production capacity and Russian companies could reduce output and exports if they become unprofitable, Reuters reported. Shmatko also said that the price of oil should be more than $60 a barrel. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold an emergency meeting in late November. OPEC President Chakib Khelil said Sunday that the group may have to wait until December to take action to reach an oil price of $70 to $90 a barrel, since the impact of its latest supply cuts was not clear yet, according to a Reuters report. Iran has said that OPEC will reach out to non-OPEC producers on supply coordination, according to John Kilduff, an analyst at MF Global. "OPEC will likely find a willing partner in [non-OPEC] Russia, and we have witnessed cooperation by Mexico and Norway in years past," he said in a note to clients Tuesday. "We can only hope producers recognize their stake in the global economic game and the tremendous stimulus that appreciably lower energy prices represent," he said. Data wait In the meantime, traders looked ahead to data on petroleum supplies, which will be released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. Analysts at MF Global expect the data to show that crude and motor gasoline supplies each rose 1.25 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 14. They also expect to see a rise of 500,000 barrels in distillate stocks. On Wall Street, U.S. stocks climbed on Tuesday after dipping lower at the start, as cheer over technology titan Hewlett-Packard Co.'s surprisingly rosy profit picture helped offset the latest evidence of the economy's deterioration. See Market Snapshot. "The bottom line is if we see a commanding recovery in the stocks [stock market], we should move higher" in oil, said Mark Waggoner, president of Excel Futures. "The flip side is we are entrenched in a bear market that shows no sign of bottoming as of yet." In other news, the Sirius Star super tanker owned by Saudi Aramco and hijacked more than 400 miles out at sea off the coast of Kenya is anchored off the Somali port of Harardhere, an official told AFP on Tuesday. The fully loaded super tanker carrying about $100 million worth of crude marked the boldest action ever by Somali pirates. Also on Globex Tuesday, December reformulated gasoline was nearly flat at $1.175 a gallon and December heating oil was also nearly unchanged at $1.794 a gallon. The average U.S. price for gallon of regular gasoline at the pump stood at $2.068 Tuesday, down from $2.087 Monday and down more than $1 from the year-ago level of $3.095, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. December natural gas futures rose 4 cents to $6.57 per million British thermal units. Elsewhere in commodities, gold futures traded lower, below $740 an ounce. See Metal Stocks. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index , a benchmark gauging the prices of major commodities, was at 243.20 points, down 0.3%.

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