Oil mixed in Asia ahead of OPEC meeting

SINGAPORE – Oil was mixed in Asian trade Wednesday ahead of an OPEC ministerial meeting due to take place later in Vienna, analysts said.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, gained seven cents to $99.16 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for July delivery lost 48 cents to $116.30.

The 12-nation Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to discuss whether the oil cartel should raise production quotas to aid the struggling global economic recovery and compensate for hobbled Libyan output.

OPEC can pump more oil “if the market needs” it, Angolan Oil Minister Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos told reporters in Vienna on the eve of the gathering.
The intergovernmental group, which accounts for an estimated 40 percent of global oil supplies, will make its latest announcement after a regular meeting in Vienna, where the cartel is based.

OPEC has held its production target at 24.84 million barrels per day since January 2009, but the cartel is pumping above that limit to compensate for lost supplies from Libya, which has been rocked by violent unrest.

Consumer nations have called on OPEC to pump more crude amid concerns that current high oil prices – with Brent oil holding stubbornly above $100 per barrel – could derail the fragile global economic recovery.

A report by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday showed US crude stocks declined at the sharpest pace since December, giving rise to hopes that demand is picking up in the world’s biggest oil consumer.