Crude stabilizes just over $43/bbl; eyes on OPEC

Crude stabilizes just over $43/bbl; eyes on OPEC

Singapore (Platts)--7Dec2004


Benchmark light sweet crude futures stabilized at just over $43/bbl in Asia
Tuesday, remaining under the influence of the same factors that had led the
market to a higher close in the West Monday. 

Crude futures reversed last week's slide to climb Monday mainly amid a 90,000

b/d outage in Nigerian production due to renewed militant activity and news

that OPEC was leaning toward a rollover of its ceiling for the first quarter

of next year but looking to remove excess quota-busting production from the market.

OPEC's ten members bound by quotas pumped 28.02-mil b/d in November, a Platts survey
showed Monday, against a ceiling of 27-mil b/d. Iraqi exports slid by 400,000
b/d, taking total OPEC production down to 29.82-mil b/d in November from
30.30-mil b/d in October. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery
was trading at $43.05/bbl in the out-of-hours Access session at 823 GMT
Tuesday, 5 cts above the close of $42.98/bbl on the New York Mercantile
Exchange.

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