LONDON, May 23: World oil prices rose on Monday amid the end of a strike at French energy giant Total and on technical trading, dealers said. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, gained 70 cents to $49.35 per barrel in early deals.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in July added 46 cents to $48.49 per barrel.

“Prices were down this morning because of the end of the Total’s strike and the funds going short,” said Bache Financial trader Christopher Bellew.

“It is not so obvious why they are recovering. I believe it is a technical correction, there is no fundamental reason behind it.” At the weekend, employees of Total called off a five-day strike that had paralyzed the company’s refineries since last Monday.

Meanwhile, traders were still digesting weekend comments for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) ahead of its June 15 output meeting in Vienna.

“Opec is producing about 30.5 million barrels per day of crude, near a 25-year high,” analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said. The oil cartel’s president Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah said on Saturday that “OECD oil inventories were at 53.8 days of demand and Opec was comfortable with 55 days”.

Traders were also looking ahead to this Wednesday’s fresh weekly snapshot of US crude inventories from the US Department of Energy (DoE). —AFP