Oil prices rose above $62 a barrel Thursday as OPEC ministers agreed to hold production unchanged for now but set the stage for a cutback of half a million barrels a day in February, AP reported. Light sweet crude for January delivery rose $1.11 to $62.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for January, which expires at the close of trading Thursday, was up 90 cents at $62.23 a barrel. The bump in oil, pushed up several large energy companies' stock prices. Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. gained 93 cents to $78.29 on the New York Stock Exchange, where shares of Royal Dutch Shell PLC rose 41 cents to $71.29. Meanwhile, shares of fuel-dependent airlines fell, though the drop may partly reflect profit taking after a steady runup that followed excitement about industry consolidation. Shares of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. fell $1.28 to $31.37 on the NYSE, while those of JetBlue Airways Corp. slid 36 cents to $13.79. The decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was confirmed by President Edmund Daukoru, who is also oil minister of Nigeria, along with ministers from other member nations. With world inventories high but moving downward and the coldest days of the Northern Hemisphere winter still ahead, the move was intended to come across as a compromise _ meant to keep markets and consumers calm at least in the short term. It also left a possible window for the organization to decide against a cut in February should demand spike, moving prices move sharply upward. On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Department released data showing a 4.3 million barrel drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week, while the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report that stockpiles of crude in industrialized nations fell by 40 million barrels in October _ evidence that global inventories are tightening. Heating oil futures rose nearly 3 cents to $1.7600 a gallon, and gasoline futures were up more than 5 cents to $1.67 a gallon. Natural gas rose 6.4 cents to $7.737 per 1,000 cubic feet.
