U.S. crude eased 31 cents at $61.14 a barrel by 1240 GMT, while London Brent slipped 547 cents to $60.26 a barrel.
Oil prices rebounded on Monday, settling up 90 cents, after the market briefly slipped below the psychologically important $60 level earlier in the session.
"The general sentiment is that if prices fall further, OPEC might decide to come in and cut its quota," said Andrew Harrington, an industry analyst at ANZ.
"Given the language that some OPEC members are using, the market is interpreting that a price below $60 would be a trigger point for the group to act," he added.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps more than a third of the world's oil, is concerned about a drop in oil prices but has no plans to call an emergency meeting ahead of its scheduled December 14 meeting in Nigeria, OPEC sources said on Monday.
U.S. crude has tumbled around 20 percent since its $78.40-peak in mid-July, taking back virtually all of this year's gains.
OPEC has avoided setting a target oil price to defend. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, who steers the policy of the world's biggest exporter, said last week that prices were "reasonable."
Saudi Arabia's Monetary Authority Vice Governor Muhammad Al-Jasser added on Tuesday that oil prices at $60 remained "very healthy."
But Iran's Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hameneh has said he does not want to see the price for OPEC's basket of crude grades drop below $60, which equates to U.S. crude at roughly $65.
Fears of a sharp slowdown in the world's largest economy also eased following a smaller-than-expected decline in U.S. August home sales data.
U.S. home sales slipped 0.5 percent to an annual rate of 6.30 million units, the smallest in the last five months of declines, which economists read as the end of the slump for the sector.
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