LONDON: Oil rose above $61 on Wednesday as dealers balanced signs that producer group OPEC may take action to stem tumbling prices against forecasts for a rise in US winter fuel stocks.
OPEC ministers are consulting over oil's slide from its July peak of $78.40, an OPEC official said on Wednesday. But US government data due out later in the day was expected to show a jump in heating fuel stocks.
"OPEC can help to stabilize the market and may be contributing to that," said Mike Wittner, analyst at investment bank Calyon. "But for the market to firm, US product balances need to become tighter. We won't see that in today's stats."
US crude rose 61 cents to $61.62 a barrel by 1120 GMT. London Brent climbed 69 cents to $60.81.
Oil in New York has fallen from July's record because of rising US fuel stocks, easing economic growth and diminishing political tensions over Iran's nuclear stand-off, the steepest drop since the 1991 Gulf War.
OPEC, which pumps more than a third of the world's oil, decided earlier this month to keep supply unchanged despite falling prices. The group's next scheduled meeting is on Dec. 14 in Nigeria.
Edmund Daukoru, president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, on Tuesday told Reuters "something must be done" to steady the market and that the group was already talking about the price drop.
Asked whether OPEC would cut production at its December meeting, Daukoru said: "Something needs to be done to steady the price. That's all I can say."
Some in OPEC see no need to act yet. Kuwait's oil minister said OPEC was not inclined to cut its production now. A Libyan official said he was not very worried about a sharp price drop.
"Prices are still at good levels," Kuwait's Energy Minister Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television. Matters would be left for the next OPEC meeting, he said.
OPEC has not decided whether to hold an emergency meeting before December, the OPEC official said on Wednesday.
