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Oil fell nearly a dollar to near $93 a barrel on Friday, its third consecutive day of losses, on skepticism that a U.S. bailout package would be enough to prevent further oil demand falls.
The House of Representatives could vote as early as Friday on the revised $700 billion financial industry rescue bill, which was approved by the U.S. Senate late on Wednesday but has failed to lift markets so far.
U.S. light crude for November delivery fell 77 cents to $93.20 a barrel by 2:51 a.m. EDT, up from an earlier low of $92.81.
It had slid by a hefty $4.56 on Thursday on demand worries and a stronger dollar.
London Brent crude was down 54 cents to $90.02 a barrel, after having fallen below $90 earlier for the first time since September 17.
"Traders are watching the outcome of the U.S. House of Representatives vote on the bail-out package," Jonathan Kornafel, director Asia, Hudson Capital Energy, said in a note on Friday.
"Unfortunately, while a "no" vote may result in a financial meltdown, a "yes" vote may cause nothing more than increased volatility across all markets," he added.
Asian stocks fell on Friday after U.S. stocks lost 4 percent on Thursday.
Japan's Nikkei average fell 1.9 percent to a three-year closing low on Friday for its worst weekly drop in more than a year.
The growing financial crisis has added to concerns about oil demand, which has slumped in industrialized countries like the United States this year, sending crude prices crashing from record highs over $147 a barrel hit in July.
Total U.S. oil product demand over the past four weeks is down 7.1 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly data showed.
Additional pressure on crude prices came as investors — who had flocked to crude and other commodities earlier this year as a hedge against the weak dollar and inflation — unwound positions.
"In the current situation when the market is facing tightness in the money market, investors don't want to take risks in oil and other commodities markets," said Shuji Sugata, manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures and Securities Ltd in Tokyo.
The dollar hovered near a one-year peak against a basket of major currencies on Friday as banks and financial institutions have scrambled to buy the U.S. currency on the open market after being locked out of frozen money markets.
U.S. government data — showing rising inventories of crude, gasoline and natural gas as oil infrastructure recovered from Hurricane Ike — also weighed on crude prices.
