Oil prices riding high with little influence from OPEC

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Oil prices riding high with little influence from OPEC

November 10, 2000 4:41pm Source: Reuters

By Bernie Woodall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices rose slightly Friday ahead of a Sunday OPEC meeting expected to do little to ease those prices still running near decade highs.

It will be the second straight OPEC session in which U.S. oil prices are at $34 a barrel, more than $15 above average crude prices from 1999.

This week saw above-normal temperatures over much of the United States, but by next week a chill over the Northeast is expected to cause a spike in heating oil demand.

Any relief for home heating oil users was dashed this week, when futures prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose 10 cents to above $1 for the first time in a month.

On the NYMEX Friday, crude oil prices gained a dime to settle at $34.02 a barrel.

Oil analyst Jim Ritterbusch said that despite the OPEC meeting and chillier U.S. weather, next week's U.S. crude oil prices will stay in the $32-$34 range they have been in since mid-August.

U.S. oil prices aren't expected to break from this $32-$34 range for the next several weeks unless there are major supply disruptions, Ritterbusch said.

OPEC has reasserted its power in the past couple of years in moves that have depressed oil supply. However, when the 11 cartel members gather this Sunday, they are more likley to debate the next secretary-general of OPEC rather than moves that would rock world oil prices.

``OPEC's meeting this Sunday in Vienna is not expected by us to be a major market event,'' said Michael Rothman, analyst with Merrill Lynch.

Rothman said that the steam was taken out of this weekend's OPEC meeting on Oct. 30 when OPEC announced a production hike of 500,000 barrels per day.

The 11 OPEC nations supply slightly less than 40 percent of the world's daily consumption of about 76 million barrels of crude oil each day.

OPEC's president, Ali Rodriguez of Venezuela, this week said that OPEC probably won't need to cut oil production through the 2000-2001 northern hemisphere winter.

On Thursday, U.S. heating oil futures jumped 5.66 cents to $1.025 a gallon after the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly report that low heating oil and diesel inventories in industrial nations ahead of winter were a ``serious concern.''

The bullish trend for petroleum prices had little effect on share prices for the top U.S. oil companies on the New York Stock Exchange, where Exxon Mobil lost 5/16 to $89-9/16, Chevron Corp gained 3/4 to $84-1/8, and Texaco Inc. gained 1/4 to $60. ^ REUTERS@

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 10, 2000


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