by Perrine Faye
LONDON, Aug 9 (AFP) - World oil prices reversed early losses on Monday to climb towards record high levels amid ongoing worries about possible disruptions to supply, traders said.
Brent North Sea crude oil for September delivery climbed 51 cents to 41.14 dollars in afternoon trading in London, close to the record high level of 41.50 dollars reached last Friday.
New York`s light, sweet crude for delivery September, which hit a record high point of 44.77 dollars per barrel on Friday, rose 39 cents to 44.34 dollars in pre-opening electronic dealing.
"The market started with the normal profits-taking this morning as nothing disastrous has happened during the weekend," Prudential Bache trader Christopher Bellew said.
"But it began to go up as there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding Yukos still and Iraqi exports as well.
"It is basically a continuation of the same uncertainties that are pushing prices higher," Bellew said, adding there were rumours of a halt to exports from southern Iraq.
Prices had taken a slight breather earlier Monday on hopes of an increase in official OPEC production quotas and a mooted rescue for Russian energy giant Yukos.
A consortium of Dubai-based investors was said to be backing a 10-billion-dollar (8.1-billion-euro) rescue plan for Yukos, according to Britain`s Sunday Times newspaper.
Yukos faces possible bankruptcy because of a massive tax demand from Russian tax authorities, threatening to interrupt oil deliveries.
Bellew meanwhile said that traders were keeping a nervous watch also on Venezuela ahead of a referendum there on Sunday which the opposition hopes will unseat controversial President Hugo Chavez.
The latest opinion polls mostly show a majority of Venezuelans would vote for Chavez to serve the remaining two years of his term.
However, there are fears that unrest and strike action in Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States, could disrupt the country`s oil production, as was the case in 2002.
"If Chavez was to return, the oil workers are threatening to strike because they are disatisfied about the way he`s been treating them," Bellew said.
Also influencing price movement Monday were comments by OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who said the cartel may raise its production quotas to match current output levels in a measure to prevent further overheating in the oil market.
Yusgiantoro said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries was capable of beefing up production because of excess capacity, comments that had helped to cool prices earlier Monday.
"The possibility is always open. We have over-capacity, so it can be increased," he told reporters in Jakarta, adding that the measure would be discussed at the next OPEC meeting in Vienna on September 14.
Yusgiantoro, who said the meeting would be opened to non-members, made clear that although OPEC`s ceiling currently stood at 26 million barrels per day, due to over-production and extra output from Iraq not subjected to the organisation`s quotas, it was delivering an extra four million.
Meanwhile, the price of the OPEC basket of seven crude oils reached a new record high of 39.67 dollars on Friday as world oil prices kept soaring, the organisation said in a statement Monday.
The basket, which is always published with a one-work day delay, rose Friday by 12 cents from Thursday, when the price hit 39.55, reported OPECNA, the cartel`s official news agency.
A spokesman said the level reached Friday was the "highest ever".
The basket was created in 1982 for Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries` internal use and has been published since 1987.