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