January 4, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 19, 1422

LONDON, Jan 3: Oil prices flirted with their highest level since mid-November on Thursday, holding firm around the 21-dollar mark as cold weather in Europe and the United States continued to spur demand.

The price of a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for February ticked up a cent to 21.01 dollars, having risen more than a dollar a barrel on Wednesday. In New York overnight, the light sweet crude February contract surged 1.17 dollars to 21.01 dollars a barrel.

Experts said prices were driven by the cold European and US winter coupled with growing confidence that Saudi Arabia was implementing output cuts agreed with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) last week.

On the demand side meanwhile, chill weather has increase consumption of crude products. The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Wednesday reported a slide of 2.45 million barrels in crude stocks.

“The cold winter break was clearly a supportive factor, and the fact that more normal winter conditions could continue in the US helped the market,” said Lawrence Eagles, an energy expert with the GNI brokerage.

“The latest six-to-10 day weather forecast calls for normal to below normal weather conditions in the US Northeast,” Eagles said.—AFP