June 20, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1423

LONDON, June 19: The price of oil edged higher in late trade on Wednesday as the release of supportive data on US inventories helped the markets claw back earlier losses.

A barrel of Brent North Sea crude for August delivery rose 29 cents to $25.08 by late afternoon.

In New York, light sweet crude July-dated futures gained 34 cents to $25.77.

Analysts said the market was lifted by a report from the US Department of Energy (DoE) which said that crude oil stocks fell 500,000 barrels to 323.0 million in the week ended June 14.

The data were in stark contrast to unofficial figures from the American Petroleum Institute (API), which had earlier sent oil prices into decline.

The API said late Tuesday that crude stocks had risen 2.5 million barrels.

“The DoE’s numbers certainly called the API’s into question,” said GNI analyst Lawrence Eagles.

He added that comments from Qatar’s oil minister, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiya, who reportedly played down talk of a possible hike in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (Opec) third quarter output, offered the market extra support.

Opec said earlier it might raise supply later this year if Iraq were forced to reduce its exports because of a tougher pricing policy that has been introduced under the UN-brokered sanctions regime against Baghdad.

A source close to Opec who declined to be named said: “Negotiations between the UN and Iraq on the ‘oil for food’ programme that will be held in Vienna on July 4 and 5 will therefore be crucial.

“If the price issue is not resolved there, Opec might reconsider its production curbs and put more crude on the market if demand calls for such action,” the source told AFP.