Oil prices firmed today but held to a tight range as the market awaited the latest weekly update on energy stockpiles in the US.
The weekly US energy report will be released tomorrow - one day later than normal owing to Monday's public holiday in the US.
Traders also kept an eye on tumbling stock markets and a global economic downturn that has undercut world demand for energy.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, added 51 cents to $41.35 a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for March gained 11 cents to $43.73.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), a leading energy watchdog, last week joined the ranks of forecasters predicting a fall in global oil demand this year in light of the slowing economic outlook. The IEA sees demand falling by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2009 to 85.3 million bpd.
Oil has plunged from record highs above $147 a barrel in July as oil consumption has dropped, prompting the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to agree to a series of output cuts.
OPEC is fully enforcing its record oil supply curbs, which should be enough to boost prices, the group's president, Angolan oil minister Botelho de Vasconcelos, told Reuters. But prices remain at levels not seen since 2004.
