Oil prices rebound before OPEC meet next week

Top Mining News - Oil Prices : This is the information about mining prices. As reported by LONDON (AFP), the increasing energy demand in the United States. This was said by traders. The complete information is as follows:

LONDON (AFP) – Oil prices rose on Friday on signs of increasing energy demand in the United States, traders said, as the market focus began switching to a meeting of the OPEC cartel next week.

New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, climbed 45 cents to 61.50 dollars a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for July advanced 46 cents to 60.43 dollars.

Oil retreated Thursday, in line with global equities, as investors cashed in profits from a rally this week that had pushed prices to six-month highs above 62 dollars.

“Both markets are consolidating after recent gains and more sideways trading is to be expected just below recent highs, especially as we head into a quiet period of trading due to the long holiday weekend in the US and the UK,” said VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.

Markets in both countries are closed Monday for public holidays.

Next Thursday meanwhile sees OPEC hold a meeting in Vienna to discuss whether to alter the amount of crude the cartel is pumping.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps some 40 percent of global supply, has steadily cut production since late last year in a bid to steady prices which have tumbled from record highs above 147 dollars a barrel last July.

Libya’s envoy to OPEC, Shukri Ghanem, told AFP on Thursday that the meeting’s outcome remained uncertain as member nations had yet to indicate a clear stance.

“Everyone has not made up their minds. They are just watching carefully the movements in the market, the different signals,” he said.

The New York oil contract jumped to a six-month high 62.26 dollars on Wednesday after data showed a fall in key US oil inventories.

US crude reserves tumbled 2.1 million barrels in the week ending May 15, far more than market expectations for a 700,000 barrel drop.

“The bullish (positive) sign is that we’ve seen two consecutive weeks of falling inventories in the US,” Tony Nunan, an energy risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp, said Friday.

However, one analyst warned that current price levels were not in line with underlying weak global economic conditions.

“If you have a look at the fundamentals in the market at the moment, the inventories in the US are still at 19-year highs and there’s no real indication that demand has re-entered the market yet,” said Ben Westmore, an economist at the National Australia Bank.