Oil held above $52 on Tuesday, after resuming a slide the previous day, as a cold snap in the U.S. Northeast was seen coming too late to support winter demand in the face of ample heating fuel supplies. U.S. light crude for March, the new front-month contract, was up 17 cents at $52.75 a barrel by 0722 GMT, after falling 82 cents on Monday. The February contract expired Monday at $51.13, down 86 cents as traders liquidated their positions. London Brent March crude was up 23 cents at $52.82. Oil prices have shed 33 percent from peaks near $80 a barrel hit in mid-July, and 14 percent since the start of this year, leading energy analysts to say the weakness had recently caused speculators to bet on further losses. A burst of chilly weather last week in the U.S. Northeast, the world's largest regional heating oil market, could have cut into U.S. distillates supplies for the first time in six weeks, a Reuters poll of industry analysts showed. "The draw in (U.S. distillates) inventories would have to be a big drop to surprise the market. The market is pretty well supplied for winter," said Tobin Gorey, analyst at Australia's Commonwealth Bank. Analysts called for an 800,000-barrel drawdown in distillate stocks, which include heating oil, for government data for the week ended Jan. 19 that is due on Wednesday. That would reverse five successive weekly builds in distillates stocks, but stronger demand may not be enough to eat into stocks that are nearly 5 percent above year-ago levels. The U.S. National Weather service said on Monday that U.S. heating demand would be about 1.4 percent below normal in the week ending Jan. 27, even though demand in the Northeast is expected to be 1.7 percent above normal as temperatures are colder-than-normal this week.