Oil rises to US$73 on expectation of OPEC cut Oil prices rose to US$73 a barrel in Asia on Monday on expectations that OPEC will cut production quotas at an extraordinary meeting late r this week.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose US$1.16 to $73.01 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore. The contract Friday gained US$1.53 to settle at US $71.38. Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said Sunday that members plan to announce a ``substantial'' cut at a meeting that begins Oct. 24 in Vienna. Khelil, who is also Algeria's energy minister, said OPEC may cut output again at a meeting in December, and that the group considers the oil market oversupplied by about 2 million barrels a day, Khelil said. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he would like prices between US$80 and US$90 a barrel. ``The market is factoring in a big cut. It will likely be as much as 2 million barrels,'' said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist with ANZ Bank in Melbourne. ``I think they will go pretty large just to change the sentiment.'' Investors largely ignored an OPEC output reduction of about 520,000 barrels a day last month, focusing instead on weakening demand. Fears that turmoil in global financial markets will spark an economic slowdown in developed countries has helped push prices down from a record US$147.27 in July. Last week, news of rising U.S. oil inventories, falling retail sales and slowing housing starts fueled concerns that the world's largest economy may face a major recession that will undermine demand for crude. ``Oil demand in the U.S. will be a bellwether,'' Pervan said. ``If the US, Europe and Japan go into a major recession, there's no reason we can't see US$35, US$40 a barrel.'' In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 1.65 cents to US$2.15 a gallon, while gasoline prices gained 2.44 cents to US$1.69 a gallon. Natural gas for November delivery jumped 14 cents to US$6.93 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, November Brent crude was up 95 cents to US$70.55 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Kences1" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/kences1?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
