Oil prices held steady yesterday after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided against raising crude supplies for winter and as the United States threatened to go it alone to oust Iraqi leader Mr Saddam Hussein.
Saudi comments that, in the event of war, OPEC should only pump more to fill a real supply shortage, not to deflate market speculation, also kept prices riding high.
International benchmark Brent crude rose three US cents to $28.41 a barrel in London. US oil futures in New York were up 10 cents at $29.60, within a dollar of recent 19-month highs.
Prices kept a firm footing after OPEC on Thursday kept supply limits on hold, defying consuming country calls to prevent a price spike as winter heating demand rises in the northern hemisphere.
"We were looking forward to more oil," said Mr William Ramsay, deputy director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, adviser on energy to 26 industrialised nations. "The fact that prices are at $30 shows that the world needs more oil," he told Reuters.
OPEC curbs, together with fears that possible military conflict in Iraq could disrupt Middle East oil supplies, have pushed up oil prices 40 per cent since the start of the year. "An OPEC quota freeze raises the spectre of much larger than normal draws on global petroleum stocks moving forward with inventories already sitting at below-normal levels," said energy analyst Mr Michael Rothman of Merrill Lynch.
