Reply #3: Oil rises slightly in Asia

[ozymandius]

SINGAPORE - Oil prices edged up Wednesday ahead of the release of weekly U.S. petroleum supply data expected to show a decline in distillate stocks.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose 23 cents to $59.16 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose 33 cents to $61.27 a barrel.

Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected weekly petroleum inventories data to be released Wednesday to show a decline of 900,000 barrels in distillate stocks, which include heating oil, in the week ended Oct. 13. Gasoline stocks were seen unchanged, the survey showed.

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The 11-member OPEC said this weekend that it would hold an emergency meeting Thursday in Qatar to discuss production quotas. Some members have suggested a cut of 1 million barrels per day was possible.

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Maybe OPEC should talk Goldman-Sachs into buying oil futures again - against the Bush administration's orders. That would boost the price.