TOKYO (Jan 21): U.S. crude futures edged up on Wednesday following steep losses a day earlier but remained below $47 a barrel amid worries over ample supplies and sluggish demand after the International Monetary Fund cut its 2015 global economic forecast.

FUNDAMENTALS

* NYMEX crude for new front-month March delivery was up 23 cents at $46.70 a barrel by 2345 GMT. Contract for February delivery expired on Tuesday, settling down $2.30 at $46.39.

* London Brent crude for March delivery was untraded yet, after settling down 85 cents at $47.99.

* The IMF, in its latest World Economic Outlook report, reduced its global economic forecast by 0.3 percentage points for this year and next, projecting 3.5 percent growth in 2015 and 3.7 percent for 2016.

* Genscape, an analytics firm that monitors U.S. oil stocks, reported a 2.6 million-barrel build last week in Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U.S. crude futures contract, adding to the market's bearish sentiment, traders said.

* U.S. oil services firm Baker Hughes Inc said in a conference call on Tuesday that the U.S. average rig count was expected to decline 15 percent in the first quarter from the previous quarter, and it expected to lay off some 7,000 staff.

* Venezuela's oil exports fell to 2.33 million barrels-per-day in 2014, from 2.43 million the previous year, Oil Minister Asdrubal Chavez said on Tuesday.

* U.S. commercial crude stocks likely rose by 2.6 million barrels last week, a preliminary Reuters survey showed on Tuesday.

* Stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, remained flat, while gasoline inventories went up 1.2 million barrels, the poll showed, ahead of weekly inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) later in the day.