Crude oil falls for second day
Crude oil fell a second day before an OPEC meeting this week where the producer group is expected to keep its output targets unchanged.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has no need to cut production when it meets March 5 to review oil output policy, Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp, said. Venezuela supports either keeping output the same or cutting it, Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela's energy and oil minister said on Feb 29.
"OPEC quotas will remain unchanged," said Robert Laughlin, senior broker at MF Global Ltd in London. "Whilst Western leaders will call for the producers to add barrels to the marketplace, the weakness in the US dollar will surely prevent any change in official production."
Crude oil for April delivery fell as much as 92 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $100.92 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract traded for $101.24 at 11:29 am in London.
On Feb 29, oil dropped 75 cents, or 0.7 percent, to settle at $101.84 a barrel in New York after reaching $103.05 a barrel earlier in the day, the highest since trading started in 1983.
Prices rose 3.1 percent last week and are up 69 percent from a year ago.
Brent crude for April settlement was at $99.54 a barrel, down 56 cents, on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange at 11:20 am London time.
"I assume things are going to be as it is," Ghanem told reporters upon arriving in the Austrian capital for the OPEC meeting.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered 10 armored battalions to the border with Colombia yesterday, heightening the risk of a military clash in the region. Chavez has pledged to support Ecuador after Columbia launched an air strike against guerillas based there.
Venezuela, the biggest crude exporter in the Americas, is also locked in a dispute with Exxon Mobil Corp over compensation for Venezuela's seizure of a joint venture last year.
Agencies
(China Daily 03/04/2008 page17)
