LONDON, 8 December 2004 — Oil prices slipped yesterday, giving back the previous day’s gains as markets looked ahead to weekly US petroleum inventory data and a this week’s OPEC meeting, and following the end of a blockade in oil-rich Nigeria.
New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, fell 58 cents to $42.40 a barrel. In London, Brent North Sea crude oil for January delivery dropped by 90 cents to $38.75 a barrel.
Oil prices had rebounded on Monday, arresting a three-day, 13-percent price slide on concerns about an attack on a US consulate in Saudi Arabia and the possibility that the 11-state OPEC might seek to rein in output at Friday’s meeting.
Much focus remained on the OPEC meeting, amid speculation as to whether ministers would boost prices by trimming current overproduction above official ceilings, or even cut the quotas themselves.
