Oil prices dropped on the news that OPEC will most probably wait until March to make any output cuts and rising US inventories.

"We will wait until March (for any output decision)," Algeria’s Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said on Saturday.

March crude fell $0.63 to $45.85 a barrel.

OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah noted that he does not believe the talks necessary as discussion on prices will only happen if prices lose 30-40% or rise above $50.

At the Vienna OPEC meeting on January 30, the ministers of the oil-producing nations left production targets unchanged at 27 million barrels a day. Still, the cartel reserved the right to slash production in February, earlier than the previously projected March, in a meeting in Isfahan, Iran. The decision, the ministers agreed, can be made by telephone.

Traders however expect the prices to move up even in the light of the OPEC decisions.

"The underlying trend still seems to be positive," said Alex Scott, senior research analyst at Seven Investment Management in London. "There doesn’t seem to be too much letup on demand."

The U.S. National Weather Service forecasts a spell of unusually warm weather in the US Northeast that will temporarily reduce the demand for heating oil giving refineries time to focus on adding to gasoline inventories.