Oil rose today, as signs that OPEC will probably resist consumer nations' calls to pump more oil helped prices claw out of a slump from a record high set last month.
Several members of the cartel have said they believe the world oil market is well supplied and there is no need for the group to open up the spigots when it meets in Abu Dhabi tomorrow.
US crude rose 27 cents a barrel to $89.58 at 7.19am, bouncing off a five-week low of $87.14 hit in the previous session. London Brent crude was up 30 cents at $90.10.
Prices are down around 10 percent from the November 21st peak of $99.29 a barrel as widespread worries that the weakening US economy could cut into world energy demand have stemmed crude's rally.
But the slump in prices and the dimming demand outlook has also made OPEC more reluctant to raise output.
"Increasing production now is not necessarily the best time, because by the time the oil hits the market we're already well into the peak demand season," said Tobin Gorey, a commodities strategist at Australia's Commonwealth Bank.
Consuming nations have called on OPEC to put more oil on the market, to stem the decline in inventories ahead of the northern hemisphere winter and to temper prices.
But OPEC ministers, who agreed this year to raise production by 500,000 barrels per day effective November 1st, are adamant that oil's surge to record levels had been driven by speculators and not by a shortfall in supplies.