Oil prices rose to near $46 a barrel Monday as investors anticipated another OPEC production cut will shrink global supplies. Gains were kept in check by the strengthening dollar, which drew investors away from commodities. Benchmark crude for April delivery rose 25 cents to $45.77 a barrel by midday in Europe on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices rose $1.91 on Friday to settle at $45.52. The contract peaked at $47.03 earlier in the session before retreating. In London, Brent prices fell 87 cents to $43.98 on the ICE Futures exchange. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries plans to meet March 15 in Vienna, and some of the group's leaders have said a production cut is likely. Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari was quoted by the official IRNA news agency Sunday saying OPEC members have “almost” completely complied with the 4.2 million barrels a day of output quota reductions announced since September. Nozari also said OPEC should coordinate supply policy with non-OPEC producers. “Oil is rallying primary due to the speculation that OPEC will cut production,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. “The market in the last week or two has paid more attention to supply because the OPEC cuts have shown up in the data.” The government said last week that US crude inventories fell for a second week in three, halting a trend over the previous six weeks that saw inventories jump more than 30 million barrels. Most analysts expect OPEC to announce a cut of at least 500,000 barrels a day. Analyst Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland said that a new OPEC cut of 800,000 barrels would take the total output cut to 5 million barrels a day since September, “probably all that is required” to help the Nymex contract push above $50. Even so, the $50 floor for oil prices was seen as hard to maintain.
