January 18, 2002	Friday	Ziqa'ad 3, 1422

LONDON, Jan 17: The price of oil made a modest recovery here on Thursday after recent heavy falls.

Benchmark Brent North Sea crude for March delivery rose to $19.29 a barrel from $19.03 on Wednesday evening.

In New York, February-dated light sweet crude futures dipped four cents on Wednesday to $18.86.

The mild recovery was helped by figures from the US energy department, which showed a recent rise in US crude stocks levels, but a smaller one than had been reported earlier by the private American Petroleum Institute.

After eight consecutive down days the market was looking oversold and due a bounce, noted Lawrence Eagles, commodities expert at the GNI brokerage.

Given the market still looks oversold, we would not be surprised to see a further recovery ahead of the weekend, he added.

With Iraqi shipments still very slow and signs of good compliance on the Opec deal, there seems little reason to sell the market aggressively at the moment, even if demand is poor.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) agreed in December to cut its production quotas by another 1.5 million barrels a day from the beginning of this month.—AFP