World oil prices climbed today, helped by rising stock markets, and after New York crude had ducked under $69 on concerns over weak US demand.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January, nudge up seven cents to $69.94 a barrel. Earlier in the day it fell to $68.59 - the lowest point since October 5.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January gained 40 cents to $70.28 a barrel in late London trading.
The US is the world's largest oil user, but demand has been affected by the country's worst economic slump since the Great Depression.
In recent weeks, oil prices have been depressed due to the strengthening US currency, which makes dollar-priced oil more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies. That tends to dampen demand and prices.
Meanwhile, traders were turning their thoughts to the upcoming meeting of OPEC oil producers later this month.
Iraq will be a big player at OPEC's meeting in Angola over its allocated crude production quota following a string of deals with oil majors, a senior US embassy official said yesterday.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting in Luanda on December 22 comes shortly after Baghdad set ambitious output targets at a Friday-Saturday auction of Iraqi oil field contracts to foreign energy firms.
Iraq currently produces around 2.5 million barrels of oil per day.
But after awarding seven contracts to foreign energy firms at the auction, following three more deals sealed since a first auction in June, it aims to ramp up output to 12 million barrels per day within seven years.
Since economic sanctions of the Saddam Hussein era after his 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq has been the only OPEC member not bound by the OPEC quota system and the cartel's overall output ceiling of 24.84 million barrels per day.
