The OPEC cartel is preparing to announce its biggest production cut in decades, as producers struggle to contain a collapse in prices amid a global recession, Saudi Arabian and other OPEC representatives said Tuesday.

But that did not stop oil prices from falling again as the market focused on the dire state of the global economy. Oil futures shed 91 cents to settle at $43.60 a barrel in New York, putting OPEC under pressure as its members meet Wednesday in Algeria for their fourth gathering since September.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top exporter, and other producers said that OPEC was considering a cut of two million barrels a day, or the equivalent of 2.5 percent of global production, to “bring things in balance,” according to the Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi.

It would be the third cut announced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in three months, and comes on top of previous pledges to slash daily production by a total of two million barrels. OPEC producers account for about 40 percent of the world’s oil.