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Oil prices
take breather after recent gains
LONDON: The price of oil was steady here in early trading
Thursday as traders paused for breath after a topsy-turvy
session the previous day that saw prices run up to six-month
highs only to fall back to earth again. The price of a barrel
of reference Brent North Sea crude for April delivery inched
up to 24.72 dollars a barrel from 24.66 on Wednesday evening.
In New York, benchmark light sweet crude futures closed on
Wednesday up two cents at 24.90 dollars.
Prices rose as high as 25.60 dollars a barrel in late trading
here Wednesday, driven higher by figures showing another fall
in US gasoline stocks just months away from the all-important
US summer driving season. But analysts said that the market
was taking a more considered view of the market situation on
Thursday, and prices had levelled off.
Prudential Bache broker Luca Bertali said there would be some
consolidation in the market after the volatile trading of the
previous day, when the market had been "going a bit crazy." He
added: "We are still long-term bullish, but in the short term
it can be a little more bearish as there is no fundamental
reason for this move."
The recent price revival has been a boon for the Organisation
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose success in
brokering a producer pact to curb output from the start of
this year has helped reverse a slump in prices after the
September 11 terrorist attacks.
With prices on the up, OPEC is once again eyeing its price
target range of 22-28 dollars a barrel, a goal that fell by
the wayside after September 11. OPEC Secretary General Ali
Rodriguez said Thursday he was sure oil prices would return to
the producer group's target average of 25 dollars per barrel,
welcoming a Russian pledge to keep a cap on its crude exports.
Calling the steep post-September 11 slump in world oil prices
a "transient phenomenon," Rodriguez also reiterated OPEC's
pledge to keep crude prices within a target band of 22-28
dollars per barrel.
Courtesy The News March
22, 2002
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Pakissan.com;
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