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Oil prices level out on markets

26 May 2009 08:42 (UTC +04:00)

BakÄ±. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. Oil fell below $61 a barrel on Tuesday, ahead of an OPEC meeting later this week expected to keep output unchanged, while growing fears of North Korea firing another short-range missile encouraged some profit-taking.

U.S. oil prices for July delivery fell 70 cents from Friday’s close to stand at $60.97 a barrel by 0247 GMT. London Brent crude fell 16 cents to $60.05.
There was no settlement price as NYMEX was closed for the Memorial Day holiday in the United States.
OPEC is not expected to change production policy this week, the al-Hayat newspaper quoted Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi as saying on Tuesday, adding that the world stocks were still too high to consider lifting output.

Prices rallied around 9.5 percent last week and are now hovering near a six-month high, thanks to a spate of U.S. refinery problems and unrest in major oil exporter Nigeria.