LONDON, April 25: World oil prices rose on Monday on concerns that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) may decide against hiking production further to help cool red hot prices, dealers said. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, gained 26 cents to $55.65 per barrel in electronic deals.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in June won 52 cents to $55.49 per barrel.

Traders were unsure whether an Opec proposal to raise production levels beyond the current 28 million barrels per day (bpd) authorization would materialize, said Dave Ernsberger, Asia oil director at energy information provider Platts in Singapore.

“People are nervous about Opec, or rather, Opec’s ability or desire to follow through on some of the promises the market has been looking forward to,” he added.

Opec appeared to have no intention of increasing crude oil output to levels that would drive prices under $50 a barrel, the Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES) meanwhile said in its monthly report published on Monday.—AFP