LONDON, Dec 9: Oil prices shot above 61 dollars per barrel on Friday for the first time for more than a month before easing on profit-taking before next week’s OPEC meeting, dealers said.

Markets looked ahead to a one-day meeting of the 11-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Monday in Kuwait City to discuss output.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, dipped six cents to 60.60 dollars per barrel in pit deals.

The contract had earlier spiked above 61 dollars as cold weather enveloped the US northeast, igniting forecasts of higher demand for heating fuel, analysts said.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for January delivery fell 63 cents to 58.04 dollars per barrel in electronic trading.

“The market is now turning its attention towards the OPEC meeting next week in Kuwait to discuss supply policy,” analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said.

Several OPEC ministers have already indicated they will renew the cartel’s production quota next week, which stands at 28 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.

However OPEC agreed in September to make an extra 2.0 million bpd available in view of hurricane disruption to North American output.

The price of oil hit an all-time high of 70.85 dollars per barrel in New York on August 30 following Hurricane Katrina, which devastated refining and crude production facilities along the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Prices had begun stronger on Friday “on colder weather forecasts that should bring greater demand for heating fuel”, Sucden analysts said.

“The market remains on edge about the cold weather but we will need a long sustained period of colder than usual weather to really eat into stocks,” they added.

Crude futures had fallen on Wednesday after the Department of Energy revealed sharp rises in US energy stocks over the past week.

The government department said US crude stocks increased by 2.7 million barrels for the week that ended December 2 to total 320.3 million barrels, higher than the gain of 2.1 million barrels expected by analysts.

Crude stock levels are now some 11.0 percent higher than at the same stage last year.

Distillates, used for heating oil and diesel fuel, also rose 2.7 million barrels to stand at 130.6 million, the DoE said. —AFP