September 30, 2006	Saturday	Ramazan 6, 1427

LONDON, Sept 29: Oil prices declined on Friday as traders’ attention turned to abundant global supplies, while the market shrugged off a move by Opec members Nigeria and Venezuela to reduce their production, dealers said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, shed 76 cents to $62.00 per barrel in pit trading.

The contract had climbed above $64 on Thursday for the first time since September 19 before ending the session in negative territory.

In London on Friday, Brent North Sea crude for November delivery slumped $1.12 to $61.42 per barrel in electronic trading, reversing gains won the previous day.

“The market appears to have refocused on the plentiful supply situation,” said Michael Davies, an analyst at the Sucden brokerage in London, in reference to falling crude oil prices.The market ignored announcement of production cut by Nigeria and Venezuela from Sunday.The spokesman told AFP the decisions were made voluntarily by each country, insisting they were not imposed by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The oil market was calmed this week by large weekly increases to US stockpiles of distillates and motor fuel.

Ahead of the northern hemisphere winter, traders focus on the level of distillate inventories, which include heating fuel.

Crude futures slid beneath $60 per barrel this week as tensions briefly eased over Iran, and British energy giant BP said it would resume output at the biggest US oil field.

On Monday, New York crude plunged to $59.52 -- the lowest value since March 8 -- while London Brent had touched a low of $59.32 -- also last seen March 8.Tetsu Emori, the chief commodities strategist for Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo, said however that Friday’s declines were a technical reaction and that several supportive factors were still in the market.—AFP