Benchmark Brent for November delivery lost ground for the third straight day to close 18 cents lower at $22.75 a barrel, down from a brief afternoon move up to $23.03. The falls followed news that adherence by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to export limits loosened again in September as high prices drew extra supplies from core Gulf producers.

The export group raised well head output in September by 140,000 barrels a day to 26.68 million bpd from a revised 26.54 million in August, according to the survey of OPEC and industry officials and consultants. "It looks like they might be starting to turn on the taps," said one dealer.

Oil prices more than doubled to a 33-month peak of $24.30 a barrel late last month thanks to good compliance by OPEC and some non-OPEC producers with output limits imposed to rescue themarket from historic lows touched earlier in the year.

The curbs are aimed at shrinking a big global surplus of stored oil that drove 1998 prices to levels that sliced billions of dollars off the incomes of oil-dependent OPEC states. But the latest Reuters' monthly survey found that OPEC output climbed 700,000 bpd in September from a low point of just below 26 million bpd in June, spurred by incremental Iraqi oil and increasing OPEC leakage.

The survey indicated that compliance by the 10 OPEC members participating in supply restrictions fell to 81 per cent in September from 83 per cent in August.