LONDON, Oct 10: World crude prices dropped below $59 in New York trade on Tuesday, as traders cast doubt on the likelihood of an output reduction by the Opec.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, dived $1.01 to $58.95 per barrel in pit trading.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for November delivery slumped 93 cents to $59.61 per barrel in electronic deals.The market shrugged off events in Nigeria -- Africa's biggest producer of crude -- where armed youths in the country's restive Niger Delta seized a flow station run by oil company Shell.

Their act on Tuesday saw 60 workers taken hostage, causing a production loss of some 12,000 barrels of oil per day, the company said.

Meanwhile although traders remained concerned about the nuclear test announced by North Korea on Monday, the main issue was growing talk from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries about a potential supply cut, analysts said.

Opec president Edmund Daukoru, who is also Nigeria's oil minister, has proposed to cartel members that they cut their combined daily output by 1.0 million barrels per day (bpd) in a move aimed at shoring up prices.

“Opec ministers remain divided over whether to formalise the deal,” Sucden analyst Michael Davies said on Tuesday.

“It is still not completely certain that the cut in output will come from actual production rather than quotas.”

The cartel has held its official output quota at 28 million bpd since June 2005 but prices have slumped by around one quarter since reaching record highs above $78 in July and August.

Despite the official quota, actual Opec production was estimated by analysts to stand at around 27.5 million bpd.OPEC members Nigeria and Venezuela voluntarily began reducing their oil production by a combined 170,000 barrels per day at the start of October.

Meanwhile the cartel's two largest members, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are pushing for an emergency meeting in Vienna next week to ratify an agreement to reduce output.

Kingpin Saudi Arabia is believed to favour a reduction in its official output of 300,000 bpd, according to analysts.

“The final details have not been agreed -- or at least announced -- and sceptical market participants are waiting for the formal deal and possibly a formal meeting,” Calyon analyst Mike Wittner said.

Indonesia's energy minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Tuesday he had received a request from Opec headquarters that cartel members consider cutting oil production by one million barrels per day (bpd) on a pro-rata basis.

He did not, however, indicate when the proposed reduction would take effect or give any further details.—AFP