NEW YORK, Dec 8 (AFP) - World oil prices rose Wednesday as traders reacted coolly to news of a rise in US commercial energy reserves, sweating instead about an OPEC gathering in Cairo this week.
New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, advanced 48 cents to 41.94 dollars a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for January climbed 42 cents to 38.69 dollars.
The bounceback from Tuesday's steep falls defied weekly figures from the US Department of Energy showing rises in stockpiles of crude oil, gasoline and distillate fuels.
In the week ended December 3, inventories of crude oil rose 600,000 barrels to 293.9 million, gasoline climbed 2.4 million barrels to 208.1 million and distillates rose 1.4 million barrels to 119.3 million, the government said.
Traders were unnerved by a parallel but conflicting American Petroleum Institute survey, which found that distillates fell 1.2 million barrels to 120.8 million.
"People are pointing to discrepancies in the two reports," said Fimat USA analyst Mike Fitzpatrick.
"It's all that was necessary (for oil prices) after coming down pretty hard last week," he added. "People are very nervous."
Veronica Smart, analyst at the London-based Energy Information Centre, said people appeared to be disappointed by the inventories data.
"People were probably hoping for them to be better than they were. That has facilitated some gains in the oil prices," she said.
Traders feared the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may try to curb above-quota production when its ministers meet in Cairo on Friday, analysts said.
OPEC producers must act, either by ending cheating on quotas or by lowering the official output ceiling, Libyan Oil Minister Fathi Hamed Ben Shatwan said in Cairo.
"We were working very hard when the price went very high to the sky. Now we should work the same way when the price is going down," he told reporters.
OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's energy minister, said earlier Wednesday in Jakarta that the cartel might postpone discussions on cutting quotas until a clear picture of supply and demand emerged in the first quarter of 2005.
OPEC's current production quota, excluding Iraq, is 27 million barrels per day, although its actual output, including Iraq, is thought to be closer to 30 million.
The cartel has been pumping at close to full capacity amid soaring oil prices but has now seen a steep market correction.
"We had some countries saying that they would cut production and others saying that they would stick to their quotas," Smart said.
"There are still some concerns, particularly in the winter months, that a cut in output would trigger supply issues. OPEC will be looking overall to the price fall of the past few weeks to determine whether or not to cut production," she said.
12/08/2004 21:48 GMT - AFP