By Nia Williams
CALGARY Alberta (Reuters) - Brent crude fell below $86 a barrel on Monday as nagging concerns about abundant supply and sluggish demand pushed the global oil benchmark back down toward a four-year low hit last week. U.S. crude hovered below $83 a barrel.
Losses were limited ahead of Chinese third-quarter gross domestic product data due to be released overnight.
Brent tumbled more than a dollar in early U.S. trade, but bounced off session lows as global equities markets gained.
Oil prices are down more than 25 percent since June on concern about a saturated global oil market and a gloomy economic outlook from Europe to China. Last week, Brent slid below $83, its lowest since 2010.
Energy economists have slashed forecasts of world oil demand growth for next year.
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Brent fell as low as $84.41, and was down 77 cents at $85.38 a barrel by 1828 GMT. The global benchmark had rallied 2 percent on Friday, its biggest gain in over a month.
U.S. crude was down 8 cents at $82.67 a barrel.
Bill Baruch, senior market strategist at futures for iitrader.com LLC in Chicago said many market participants were anxious to see the China data. Growth was expected to be at a five-year low of 7.3 percent.
"If the world's second largest consumer of oil comes in with stronger data that could help stop this move lower," Baruch said, adding that the market was still concerned about economic weakness in Europe.
It was not clear whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will decide to cut output to support prices when OPEC members meet on Nov. 27.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran have all indicated reluctance to change supply policy, while Venezuela has requested an extraordinary meeting ahead of the Nov. 27 gathering to discuss how to arrest the price plunge.
"There's still a sense that right now things are not really great in the global economy and there are no signs that oil producers are looking to cut back on production any time soon," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
Analysts said prices could grind lower, with Brent testing new multi-year lows as the market remains awash in supply.
Output has been halted temporarily for environmental reasons at the Saudi-Kuwait Khafji oilfield, which has output of 280,000 to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd).
But the move is unlikely to affect oil supplies from Saudi Arabia, the world's top exporter, which says it has the ability to produce as much as 12.5 million bpd. Saudi Arabia pumped 9.7 million bpd in September.
Investors kept a wary eye on any disruption to oil supply from geopolitical developments.
The United States air-dropped arms for the first time to Kurdish fighters defending the Syrian border town of Kobani against Islamic State.
Traders were also concerned about uncertainty over who is in charge of oil reserves in Libya, where two competing governments are vying for control.
(Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in London and Jane Xie in Singapore; Editing by Keiron Henderson, Susan Fenton, Jessic Resnick-Ault and David Gregorio)