oil futures ended with small losses but well off session lows after tumbling to levels last seen in january after the wall street journal reported that saudi arabia and other opec members were discussing a potential output boost for their december meeting crude quickly trimmed declines after saudi arabias energy minister denied the report west texas intermediate crude for december delivery cl1 cl00 fell 35 cents or 04 to end at 7973 a barrel on the new york mercantile exchange january wti cl00 clf23  the most actively traded contract lost 7 cents or less than 01 to close at 8004 a barrel