LONDON, Jan 30: World oil prices slipped back under $92 per barrel on Wednesday following news that US crude stockpiles rose for a third successive week.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, shed 11 cents to $91.53 per barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for March delivery fell 24 cents to $91.76.

The US government’s Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that American crude inventories jumped 3.6 million barrels in the week ending January 25.

That beat analysts’ consensus forecasts for a gain of 2.0 million barrels.

Earlier on Wednesday, prices had traded in positive territory as traders bet that another rate cut from the US Federal Reserve would encourage crude demand in the world’s leading energy consumer.

Lower US borrowing costs tend to boost demand for crude oil and therefore support higher price levels.

Crude was partly supported by the weak US currency, which makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for buyers using stronger currencies.

Prices also derived some support from growing expectations that the Opec oil cartel would refuse to raise output at a meeting in Vienna this week.

Opec ministers began to arrive in Vienna on Wednesday ahead of a key meeting at which the oil-producing cartel is expected to maintain its output quotas.

“I think the supply is enough. I don’t think there will be much changes to do,” Ecuador’s petroleum minister Galo Chiriboga Zambrano the first to arrive in Vienna had said on Tuesday.

Analysts expect Opec to announce no change to output, with few members ready to consider increasing production, as called for by US President George W. Bush recently.

Nigeria’s Junior Petroleum Minister Odein Ajumogobia also said on Tuesday there was no reason for Opec to change the position it adopted at its last meeting in December, where it decided to maintain the status quo.—AFP