News & Event
Oil Trades Near Two-Day High in New York Before OPEC Meeting on Output

By Ben Sharples - Dec 12, 2011 6:47 AM GMT+0700
bloomberg.com

Oil traded near a two-day high in New York as OPEC prepared to meet to discuss production quotas and European leaders promoted a new fiscal accord aimed at taming the region’s debt crisis and fighting off a recession.

Futures were little changed after climbing the most in more than a week on Dec. 9. Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said some members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should curtail output to accommodate the return of Libyan crude and an increase in Iraqi production. OPEC meets in Vienna on Dec. 14. Euro-area policy makers will focus on implementing last week’s pact to strengthen budget rules and provide an additional 200 billion euros ($267 billion) to the euro warchest as quickly as possible, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told ARD television.

Crude for January delivery was at $99.57 a barrel, up 16 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:41 a.m. Sydney time. The contract gained $1.07, or 1.1 percent, to $99.41 on Dec. 9. Prices are 9 percent higher this year after climbing 15 percent in 2010.

Brent oil for January settlement was unchanged at $108.62 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract’s premium to West Texas Intermediate was at $9.05, compared with $9.21 on Dec. 9 and a record $27.88 on Oct. 14.

Iran will suggest at the planned Dec. 14 OPEC meeting that members of the group which increased output this year in the absence of Libyan exports should scale back production, Qasemi said, according to the state-run Mehr news agency yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in Singapore at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net