Oil prices fell below USD 69 a barrel on Wednesday as investors shrugged off a looming OPEC production cut after company forecasts suggested the US may be headed for a severe economic slowdown that would crimp demand for crude.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery dropped USD3.37 to USD 68.81 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid-afternoon in Europe.

The November contract expired Tuesday and fell USD3.36 to settle at USD70.89. Last Thursday, that contract had declined as low as USD68.57 a barrel, the lowest since June 2007.

Crude investors have followed equity markets this week, looking for signs on how the US economy will weather the current global financial turmoil.

On Tuesday, DuPont, Sun Microsystems and Texas Instruments reported disappointing earnings and bleak forecasts, sending the Dow Jones industrials average down 2.5 per cent.

"Oil is now highly correlated with the stock market," said Clarence Chu, a trader with market maker Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. "People are looking to the Dow for sentiment on the economy."

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about 40 per cent of global oil supply, has signaled it plans to announce an output quota reduction at an emergency meeting Friday in Vienna.