Oil prices edge up

Oil prices edged up on Friday to stem a $1 slide from the previous session, as the largest US oil terminal caught up with crude loadings but more Opec member supply cuts lent support to a market heading into winter.
US light crude was up 19 cents at $60.55 a barrel by 0300 GMT, after losing $1.08 on Thursday. London Brent crude gained 14 cents to $60.91 a barrel. The closure of the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port last week due to bad weather led to an unexpected 3.3 million barrel fall in US crude inventories last week, helping boost prices this week and slightly deflating a healthy US stock cushion.
"It seems that loadings are back on track at the LOOP. It was a short-term factor, now the market is refocusing on fundamentals," said Tetsu Emori, chief strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures Ltd in Tokyo.
Analysts said the market was supported by concerns that oil inventories in the United States could fall in the lead up to winter if Opec members continued to make good on an agreement to cut 1.2 million barrels per day of production.
"If the winter is colder than normal then the concern will be if heating oil stock levels can meet demand," said Andrew Harrington, a natural resources analyst at ANZ Bank in Sydney.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil, were lower last week, falling 1.4 million barrels, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed.
On Thursday, Libya and Kuwait joined the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran in disclosing production cuts. Kuwait will cut oil output by 100,000 bpd from November 1, while Libya will make a supply cut of 72,000 bpd. Traders are now watching for actual cutbacks in supply allocations to oil firms.
Nigeria's shipments have remained steady despite its pledge to cut output by 100,000 bpd, while the UAE may fail to meet its 100,000 bpd cut unless main producer Abu Dhabi widens this week's restraints to include Zakum crudes, traders said.
Venezuela supports a further 300,000 bpd Opec cut at the cartel's next meeting in December, its oil minister said on Thursday. But Claude Mandil, the executive director of the International Energy Agency that advises consumer nations on energy policy, said the supply cuts by the cartel could be damaging to the economies of the least developed countries. Earlier this week US President George W. Bush said that high oil prices could "wreck economies" and reduce demand for crude.