NEW YORK: Oil prices rose to near $83 a barrel Monday as the US dollar fell in the wake of the weekend Group of 20 meeting. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for December delivery was up 87 cents to $82.56 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.13 to settle at $81.69 on Friday. In London, Brent crude rose 74 cents to $83.70 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. In other Nymex trading in November contracts, heating oil rose 1.85 cents to $2.2876 a gallon and gasoline gained 1.41 cents to $2.0681 a gallon. Natural gas fell 1.6 cents to $3.316 per 1,000 cubic feet. Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 pledged Saturday to not aggressively devalue their currencies. Investors were interpreting the outcome of the G-20 meeting as a sign that policymakers will tolerate a weaker dollar without seeking to retaliate, said an energy analyst with consultancy Pervin and Gertz.
