Oil prices were steady Friday as the market awaited economic cues and evidence of OPEC's recently announced output cut. Light sweet crude for December delivery rose 2 cents to US$57.90 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent crude on London's ICE Futures Exchange gained 6 cents to US$57.93 a barrel. Prices had fallen Wednesday and Thursday after a weekly report showed a climb in U.S. crude oil inventories. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 2 million barrels to 334.3 million barrels in the last week. That was largely due to crude imports bouncing back up by 599,000 barrels per day from the previous week, when imports dropped off significantly. Inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 2.7 million barrels to 141.3 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell by 2.8 million barrels to 204.6 million barrels. Furthermore, the EIA said demand for these products has recently accelerated. Oil traders are watching to see how quickly the 11 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries move to cut production after announcing that as a group they would reduce output by 1.2 million barrels a day starting Nov. 1, the Associated Press reported. In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 0.22 cent to US$1.6375 a gallon (3.8 liters), while unleaded gasoline futures rose less than half a cent to US$1.4579 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 1.4 cent to US$7.800 per 1,000 cubic feet.
