October 03, 2006	Tuesday	Ramazan 9, 1427

LONDON, Oct 2: Oil prices fell heavily on Monday, reversing earlier gains as traders set aside a decision by Opec members Nigeria and Venezuela to cut their crude production.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, plunged $1.66 to $61.25 per barrel in pit trading.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for November delivery lost $1.02 to $61.46 per barrel in electronic deals.

Prices staged a major retreat on Monday “because there has not been any nervous sort of news developments over the weekend”, said Bache Financial trader Tony Machacek.

Nigeria and Venezuela had begun Sunday to reduce their oil production by a combined 170,000 barrels per day.Fimat analyst Mike Fitzpatrick added that “their planned cutbacks would have little impact on prices unless larger producers in the cartel also joined in the move”.

Opec has insisted that the decisions were made voluntarily by each producer.

The move was seen by many as an attempt to bolster crude prices, which have tumbled by about 20 per cent since striking record highs in July and August.

The 11-member grouping of oil producing nations said last week there were no plans for an emergency meeting to reduce its overall official production ceiling of 28 million barrels per day, which has stood since July 2005.

Meanwhile the moves by Nigeria and Venezuela have had little effect on prices, “because they were considered to be relatively small cuts”, Sucden analyst Michael Davies said.

Oil prices fell below $60 early last week as tensions eased over Iran's nuclear energy programme and as British company BP said it would resume full output.—AFP