LONDON, Sept 1: Oil prices slipped here on Monday despite a fire at an Iraqi oil pipeline over the weekend, with trading expected to be slow because of the US Labour Day holiday.

The price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for October delivery dropped 29 cents per barrel to $29.20 in late trading.

New York’s benchmark light sweet crude October contract closed on Friday at $31.57, up seven cents from the previous closing level. The US market reopens on Tuesday.

The London market showed little reaction to news of a fire on Saturday at an oil pipeline linking Iraq’s oilfields in Kirkuk with the Baiji refinery to the south, possibly caused by sabotage.

GNI trader Paul Goodhew said that markets had not reacted to news of the blaze because the extent of the damage was unclear.“And also the market is getting a bit tired of these news” stories, he added.

“Every weekend we come in and find out more sabotage on pipelines, so I think the market has discounted those facts. We are not expecting too much oil to come out of Iraq at this present moment anyway.”

Oil prices were therefore expected to remain firm ahead of a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Vienna on September 24, with the cartel expected to shun calls for an output hike, analysts said.

“So long as Opec continues to suggest it will not consider raising output at its meeting later this month ... and while Iraqi oil pipelines remain subject to random attacks we expect crude oil to remain well supported by speculative interest,” said Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish.

Opec’s basket price of seven world crudes stood at $28.90 per barrel on Friday, the cartel’s OPECNA news agency reported, above the upper end of its $22-28 target band.—AFP