September 11, 2007	Tuesday	Sha'aban 28, 1428

LONDON, Sept 10: World crude prices slipped Monday amid reports that oil kingpin Saudi Arabia wants Opec to hike output when it meets in Vienna on Tuesday.

New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October dropped 77 cents to $75.93 per barrel.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for October delivery lost 90 cents to $74.17 per barrel.

On Thursday the price of New York-traded crude hit $77.43, not far off its record high of $78.77 on August 1.

While some analysts have suggested that the current high level of oil prices may push the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to raise its production quota, most still expect the cartel to maintain output at current levels.

“Everything they’ve said so far indicates that they’re going to do little to change quotas,” said Simon Wardell, an analyst at Global Insight.

“If they raise the production, we would see a substantial price fall. But quotas are most likely to remain unchanged,” he added.

The outcome to their formal meeting has become uncertain amid speculation that Saudi Arabia is preparing to try to persuade its reluctant partners of the need for a production hike.

Qatar, Iran, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Libya have all spoken in favour of keeping output unchanged, but kingpin Saudi Arabia was said Sunday to be in favour of an increase.

—AFP