LONDON, Oct 6: World oil prices dropped back below $60 per barrel on Friday with some analysts believing that the Opec cartel was unlikely to hold an emergency meeting to consider production cuts.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, declined 83 cents to $59.20 per barrel in pit trading.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for November delivery lost 82 cents to $59.18 per barrel in electronic trading.

“On one hand, there seems to be talk of cutting production, but on the other, many think of it as a rumour,” said Tetsu Emori, the chief commodities strategist for Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo.

“I don't think there will be an emergency meeting as I believe that the Opec members are happy as long as the oil prices stay in the $50 levels.” Crude futures had rallied close to $61 on Thursday after Opec president Edmund Daukoru said the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries might hold an emergency meeting on whether to slash output.

Meanwhile in Algiers, the Algerian press agency APS quoted an “informed source” who said the meeting would take place on October 18-19 in Vienna.

However, an Opec spokesman denied that was the case.

“There's been no date set for an emergency meeting,” spokesman Tareq Amin told AFP on Friday.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia would not oppose an emergency output meet and might agree to an output reduction, according to the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, which cited an unnamed senior Opec official.

Oil prices have fallen by around 25 per cent since striking records in July and August as the market has increasingly discounted geopolitical concerns and focused instead on healthy energy supplies.Crude oil sank under $58 per barrel on Wednesday, which compared with records in excess of $78 dollars earlier this year.—AFP