Crude oil prices jumped above 91 dollars here on Monday as the market digested OPEC's move over the weekend to maintain the cartel's output levels.| Prices are also going up as the markets bake in the costs of quantitative easing by the Fed. |
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Saturday decided to leave production quotas unchanged at a meeting in Ecuador's capital Quito, stressing looming "risks to the fragile global economic recovery."
The 12-nation group said in a statement that the economic growth that had pushed oil to two-year highs above 92 dollars a barrel last week was likely to slow next year. That, and the challenges to the world's recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, "would negatively impact on oil demand," it said.
"An interesting aspect of the OPEC meeting were various statements on prices, showing that hawkish OPEC members such as Iran, Libya, Venezuela and Angola have no problem with (oil at) 100 dollars," noted analysts at JBC Energy Research.
"Some OPEC members may ask for higher prices, ignoring how fragile the global economy still is," they added.