Oil prices held close to recent highs today on fears over tight supplies after OPEC officials said the cartel was enforcing output cuts and US inventory data showed stocks were perilously low.
US light crude slipped 15 cents to $35.53 on light profit-taking after gains of more than a dollar yesterday that took prices close to $36 a barrel and within sight of a January post-Iraq war high of $36.37 a barrel.
London's Brent crude slipped 16 cents to $31.41.
The previous session's steep rally was spurred by US government data, which showed commercial petroleum supplies in the United States running at a deficit of more than 60 million barrels to the five-year average.
The Energy Information Administration, which publishes US oil stocks data every Wednesday, posted declines in gasoline and distillate inventories, while crude tanks were unchanged at a near-historic low.
At the same time, officials said OPEC was going ahead with a planned output cut from April 1st despite current high prices.