Oil steady at $61 ahead of US, IEA data, OPEC meet

SINGAPORE, Dec 13 (Reuters) Oil prices were steady near a barrel on Wednesday after hitting a two-week low amid disagreement among OPEC members over whether to cut output.

Trade is likely to be muted ahead of two key sets of data on Wednesday. The International Energy Agency (IEA) will release its monthly report on global stockpiles and oil demand, followed later by U.S. government data, which is expected to show a fall in weekly crude stocks and a small drop in supplies of distillates.

U.S. light, sweet crude rose 2 cents to .04 a barrel by 0632 GMT, halting a three-day slide that took prices as low as .65 on Tuesday, the lowest since Nov. 28, amid mild winter weather in the Northeast and disagreement within OPEC.

London Brent crude dipped 14 cents to .38.

Despite initial indications that some in OPEC favoured a second output cut at their meeting on Thursday, a delegate said on Tuesday that the core Gulf members preferred to see the group focus on meeting its previous 1.2 million barrel per day (bpd) reduction before making any new commitments.

''No cut, compliance -- this is the view up until now from the Gulf members,'' the delegate told Reuters.

The group's members have delivered an estimated two-thirds of the cut it agreed in October, its first in over two years, helping halt a precipitous 25 percent fall in oil prices from their record high .40 a barrel reached in mid-July.

While many ministers including Saudi Arabia's Ali al-Naimi have said the market remains heavily oversupplied -- U.S. crude stocks are at their highest in 13 years -- others worry that cutting on the cusp of peak winter demand could cause prices to spike, angering consumers and endangering economies.

The late shift in focus from cuts to compliance risks leaving traders cold, some analysts warned.

''The danger in such a course of action is that -- even if a cut is not necessary -- OPEC has created the expectation of a cut and it risks a price correction if it does not follow through,'' said Calyon analyst Mike Wittner.

U.S. weekly oil stock data may help shape sentiment ahead of the meeting, with analysts expecting a small 600,000 barrel draw in swollen crude inventories and a tiny 100,000 barrel slip in stocks of distillates, which include winter heating oil. S] Unseasonably warm weather in the U.S. Northeast, the biggest consumer of heating fuel, has tempered demand in recent days, and forecasters expect the mild conditions to persist next week.

The IEA's monthly report may also influence OPEC's decision. Last month the Paris-based watchdog cut its estimate for this year's oil demand growth by 130,000 barrels per day (bpd), but left its 2007 forecast at 1.45 million bpd or 1.7 percent.

The World Bank on Wednesday predicted oil prices would fall back to a barrel in 2007 and to in 2008, saying the spike earlier this year had weakened demand growth despite accelerated world economic activity.

REUTERS CS DS1223