(Reuters) - Brent crude fell on Wednesday as uncertainty about plans to resolve the euro zone debt crisis weighed on sentiment, and intensified worries about prospects for economic growth.
Brent crude fell 70 cents to $110.12 by 4:29 a.m. ET. U.S. crude fell 37 cents to $99.42 a barrel.
Euro zone finance ministers who met in Brussels on Tuesday could not say by how much they would ramp up the firepower of their rescue fund and may turn to the IMF for more help as soaring borrowing costs in Italy highlight the region's serious structural economic problems.
"Europe has still not been able to come up with a clear plan, so there has not really been a change there, and I think there are continued worries," said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland.
"When you're looking at the yields that Italy has to pay and the downgrades on banks, et cetera, we're not out of the woods yet in Europe."
Events in Iran, where Britain evacuated its diplomatic staff
a day after protesters stormed and ransacked its embassy and residential compound, were being closely watched, though it provided limited support to the oil price.
"It's interesting to note how little reaction we have seen, both in Brent and the spread between the two, to potential further disruptions in the Middle East, particularly with the Iranian invasion of the British embassy," said Michael McCarthy, chief markets strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney.
"It looks as if there will be political repercussions from that, but the oil market does not seem to have reacted much."
This could be due to prospects of slowing global growth that would affect oil demand, he added.
Further clouding the outlook for risk sensitive assets, Standard & Poor's cut its credit ratings of 15 big banking companies, mostly in Europe and the United States, on Tuesday as the result of an overhaul of its ratings criteria, reflecting weaker economic times ahead.
EIA AWAITED
Investors were awaiting EIA inventory data released at 1530 GMT, which will show that oil inventories fell 200,000 barrels last week as imports probably held steady, a Reuters poll of analysts showed on Tuesday.
Data from industry group American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday showed that crude stocks rose 3.4 million barrels last week.
Distillate stocks rose 1.3 million barrels and gasoline stocks fell 173,000 barrels, while the refinery utilization rose 0.5 percentage point, the API data showed.
Crude prices drew some support from Sudan's decision to halt oil exports from Southern Sudan over a transit fee row. The South's oil minister said on Tuesday the spat would hurt both countries' oil interests.
(Additional reporting by Ethan Bilby in London and Seng Li Peng in Singapore; editing by Jason Neely)
