LONDON, Feb 7 (AFP) - Oil prices dipped Monday on expectations of warmer weather in the United States' northeast as traders mulled a possibile cut from oil cartel OPEC, dealers said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March dropped 91 cents to 45.57 dollars a barrel in early deals.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in March fell 67 cents to 43.22 dollars a barrel.
"Mild weather in the United States' northeast has depressed heating oil prices, with forecasters predicting above-normal temperatures for the next week to 10 days," analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said.
The weather forecasts for the northeast -- which accounts for around 80 percent of the country's heating oil consumption -- meant heating fuel stocks would be under less pressure.
Traders were "increasingly looking ahead to the summer gasoline supply picture" as they eyed the start of the summer driving season in the United States -- when many Americans take to their cars for holidays, Sucden analysts added.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meanwhile would likely consider a production cut to prevent prices falling further as the northern hemisphere summer approaches and demand drops off, analysts said.
In addition to the group's next ministerial meeting on March 16 in Isfahan, Iran, the 11-member oil cartel could also discuss the issue during a teleconference in four weeks' time.
"The only support (for oil prices) we might see is the discussion between OPEC members to cut output in that meeting in March," said Bache Financial analyst Christopher Bellew.
OPEC agreed at its Vienna meeting at the end of last month to maintain "currently agreed production levels" of 27 million barrels per day (bpd).
"Traders are still weighing OPEC's threat to cut production before the group's mid-March meeting," said Sucden analysts.
"Most are reluctant to sell the market short with the cartel ready to defend a level near 40 dollars for US crude," they added.
Elsewhere, a pipeline carrying crude oil from Iraq's northern Kirkuk hub to the key refinery of Baiji was attacked on Monday, an official from the North Oil Company said.
"Preliminary reports indicate that a rocket was fired at a cluster of pipelines near Al-Fatha, just on the edge of the Tigris river," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
According to Finance Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, attacks on the country's oil infrastructure have cost Iraq seven to eight billion dollars in exports since the March 2003 US-led invasion.
02/07/2005 17:53 GMT - AFP