December 12, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 26, 1422

LONDON, Dec 11: The price of oil trudged lower again here on Tuesday in the absence of any deal between leading producers on cutting output, with traders shifting their focus to weekly data on US stock levels.

After losing almost a dollar the previous session, Brent North Sea crude for January delivery fell another 14 cents to $18.03 in early trade.

In New York, the light sweet crude January contract shed 67 cents on Monday to $18.37.

With still no sign of an elusive deal between leading producers on output cutbacks proposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), there was little to support prices.

It is just continued malaise in the sector in the absence of any clear direction from Russia and from Opec, said Commerzbank analyst Doug Leggate.

There’s a lot of uncertainty over whether or not Opec and non-Opec will or will not be able to make an agreement, he told AFP.

Prices, which have been walloped recently by a weaker demand outlook, perked up briefly after Opec appeared to have patched together a deal with major non-members such as Russia and Norway to scale down supply.

OPEC has made its own production cut conditional on significant reductions from non members.

But there was still no sign of a final deal, with Russia still offering slightly less than Opec would like and Norway still giving woolly figures for its own contribution.

The market was therefore turning its attention to weekly figures from the private American Petroleum Institute (API) expected late on Tuesday.

An oil expert at the GNI brokerage, Lawrence Eagles, said that there was some nervousness ahead of the data, noting that last week’s report showed some bearish stock builds and relatively poor demand.

The market was expecting a fall in crude stocks, but a rise in distillate and gasoline inventories, he noted.

With the recent mild temperatures in the United States, heating oil demand will almost certainly remain lacklustre, he wrote in a research note.—AFP