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SINGAPORE: Oil prices rose in Asian trading on Tuesday while leaders
of the world’s rich industrial nations warned of the dangers of
soaring oil prices and called for an increase in oil production.
New York’s main oil futures contract, light
sweet crude for August delivery, was $0.91 higher at $142.28 a
barrel after slumping $3.92 to close at $141.37 on Monday at the New
York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent North Sea crude for August was $1.09
higher at $142.96 from a drop of $2.55 to $141.87 a barrel Monday in
London.
“It seems to me like oil traders are looking
with some interest at the headlines coming out of the G8 meeting,”
said Dave Ernsberger, Asia director of global energy information
provider Platts in Singapore.
The New York contract struck a record high of
$145.85 and Brent hit an all-time peak of $146.69 last Thursday.
Soaring oil and food prices pose a “serious
challenge” to stable worldwide economic growth, Group of Eight
[G8] leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia and the United States warned on Tuesday.
At their meeting in Japan, the leaders also
called for an increase in oil production and refining capacity to
help stem soaring prices.
“The G8 leaders are clearly trying to talk
this market down,” Ernsberger said earlier Tuesday.
In pre-summit talks, Japanese Prime Minister
Yasuo Fukuda said he and US President George W. Bush agreed that
urgent efforts are needed to tackle surging oil and food prices.
Oil prices have roughly doubled over the past
year, and the surge in prices is “one of the most important issues
at this summit,” said a Japanese foreign ministry official.
But European Commission chief Jose Manuel
Barroso said there was not much the G8 can do in the near-term to
influence the price of oil.
Analysts said prices eased on Monday after
Iran’s weekend offer to negotiate on its nuclear drive, but
without a freeze on uranium enrichment, in its first comments since
responding to an international package aimed at ending a
long-running standoff with the West.
Iran, the world’s number-four crude producer,
said its nuclear program is for generating electricity while some
Western nations fear it is developing nuclear weapons.
With supplies tight, oil prices have also moved
in response to fluctuations in the US dollar, analysts said.
The greenback saw a brief boost on Monday but
was lackluster on Tuesday against major currencies in Asia.
A weaker US currency makes dollar-priced crude
cheaper for buyers using other currencies.
-- AFP
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