Oil prices firm on eve of OPEC meet

LONDON: Oil prices edged higher on Thursday, but held near 16-months low on the eve of an OPEC meeting that was widely expected to see the crude producing cartel announce plans to cut output, dealers said.

The market had slumped yesterday, mainly on news that demand for crude is slumping in the United States, the world's biggest energy consumer.

Brent North Sea crude for December delivery gained 38 cents to 64.90 dollars per barrel on Thursday.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, rose 40 cents to 67.15 dollars a barrel.

Prices had tumbled yesterday to 63.96 dollars a barrel in London, down more than 56 per cent from a record high of 147.50 dollars reached in July. New York crude also touched a low of 66.20 -last seen in June 2007.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was to meet in Vienna tomorrow with the global financial system facing its worst crisis since the Great Depression.

OPEC ministers began arriving in the Austrian capital today, one day before a key meeting at which the cartel is set to cut its oil output, to help lift crude prices hit by a drop in demand caused by an economic slowdown.

Iran's oil minister said on arrival in the Austrian capital that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should cut production by two million barrels per day when it meets tomorrow.

"Two million will stabilise" the market, Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters adding that "the rate of reduction of demand is good for a cut," said Nozari.