NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices fell by more than a dollar to $54 a barrel Monday, after a rally lost steam and traders took profits, brushing off worries about OPEC reducing production further.

Prices had rallied above $55 a barrel last week, largely due to forecasts of below-normal temperatures on the US east coast continuing into at least the first week of February. But the weather predictions weren’t enough to keep the energy markets stoked yesterday.

“We had only limited success in pushing higher, so we came under selling pressure as a result, under the idea that if it can’t go up, it has to come down,” said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets.

The price rise was also dashed, analysts said, by Saudi officials, who reiterated that they are not in favor of further production cuts and are comfortable with prices at current levels.

“It took a lot of enthusiasm out of the rally,” said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Fla.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.41 to settle at $54.01 a barrel, after rising as high as $55.96 in earlier trading.

March Brent crude on the ICE Futures exchange in London fell $1.61 to settle at $53.68 a barrel.

Heating oil fell 4.25 cents to settle at $1.5489 a gallon; gasoline fell 4.24 cents to settle at $1.4410 a gallon; and natural gas futures slipped 25.8 cents to settle at $6.917 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Crude prices are down 11 percent from where they were at the beginning of the year, due to unusually warm weather earlier in the winter.

The return of colder weather to the Northeast, which is responsible for 80 percent of the country’s heating oil consumption, and signs of OPEC compliance with its pledges to cut output led prices to rise by 7 percent last week — the first week this year that prices have finished higher.

But because supplies are not tight, traders are uncertain about resuming a rally, said Ken Hasegawa of Tokyo brokerage Himawari CX.

Crude oil appears to be stuck in this $50-$55 a barrel range now, until some big news jostles it higher or lower.

“It does seem like the market has established a short-term equilibrium,” Evans said. “Trading volumes are not as impressive as they had been. In the second week of January, we set all-time records for crude oil trading volume. Things have calmed down from that period.”