Crude Oil Nears Record on Signs OPEC Will Keep Output Quota

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose to within 50 cents of a record on speculation rising demand and restricted OPEC production may tighten fourth-quarter supplies.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries pumps 40 percent of the world’s oil and will set its output target for the rest of the year at a meeting in Vienna today. It will probably maintain its current ceiling because of ample supplies and the prospect of slowing U.S. demand, officials said.


“If there was possibly going to be an increase they would have hinted at it earlier,” said Tom Hartmann, commodity broker at Altavest Worldwide Trading Inc. in Mission Viejo, California. Traders are bullish and “it could be they’re not going to sell until they get to $80,” he said,.

Crude oil for October delivery rose as much as 83 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $78.32 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its seventh day of gains. It was trading at $77.95 at 8:05 a.m. in Singapore. New York futures reached a record $78.77 on Aug. 1.

Bloomberg