April 18 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures fell for a third straight session on Wednesday ahead of export sales report due on Thursday and amid expectations of rain in Texas - the major cotton-growing region in United States.

* ICE cotton contract for July expiry CTN8 settled down 0.34 cent, or 0.41 percent, at 82.61 cents per lb.

* It traded within a range of 82.30 and 83.17 cents a lb.

* A part of negativity in prices are because of expectations of rain in the Southwest, said Sid Love, commodity trading advisor at Kansas-based Sid Love Consulting.

* The weekly export sales report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be released on Thursday.

* "The market expects a continued strong pace of shipments, many participants are likely apprehensive regarding rumors of another round of significant sales cancellations," said Louis Rose, director of research and analytics at Tennessee-based Rose Commodity in a note.

* "The market is likely to see some weakness ahead of the report's (export sales) release."

* Total futures market volume fell by 13,472 to 26,467 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 5,332 to 263,078 contracts in the previous session.

* Certificated cotton stocks CERT-COT-STX deliverable as of April 17 totaled 71,797 480-lb bales, up from 68,534 in the previous session.

* Mexico's total cotton production for marketing year 2018/19 is forecast to be 1.57 million bales as per U.S. Department of Agriculture attache.