Oil prices steady

Oil prices held steady on Monday at just below $91 a barrel, supported by the closure of Mexico's oil export terminals due to bad weather, as well as Opec's dismissal of calls to raise output. US light crude for February delivery rose 11 cents to $90.68 a barrel in Globex electronic trading.
Oil snapped a three-day losing streak and closed 44 cents higher on Friday, thanks to short covering ahead of the Martin Luther King holiday in the United States. London Brent crude gained 27 cents to $89.50. Mexico closed all its main oil exporting ports on Sunday due to bad weather, the transport ministry said on its Web site. The Gulf of Mexico ports ship around 80 percent of the country's daily oil exports.
Mexico, the world's No 9 exporter of crude oil and a top-three supplier to the United States, has seen its exports repeatedly disrupted in recent months by rough weather that has halted shipments for days at a time. Opec's cool reaction to US calls for it to raise output also helped keep prices firmly above $90.
"The shutdown of Mexico's oil ports is pushing up prices a little. I think there is also growing sentiment that Opec will leave its production unchanged at its next meeting," said Rowan Menzies, head of research at Commodity Warrants Australia. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Sunday the global market was well supplied and the cartel had little control over oil prices near $90.
"I don't think there is a need to increase because the market is well supplied," Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. US President George W. Bush and Energy Secretary Sam Bodman have urged top exporter Saudi Arabia and Opec to raise supply on two separate visits to the kingdom last week.
The production group will meet on February 1 to discuss output. Several Opec members have said there was no reason to raise output if oil inventories recover in the second quarter as winter ends and if the US slips into a recession.
Ongoing tensions between Iran and the US over Tehran's nuclear programme also supported prices. Iran received a fourth delivery of nuclear fuel from Russia on Sunday to power Tehran's first atomic power plant and it expects four more before the consignment is complete.
Nymex floor trading and other US financial markets are closed on Monday, but energy futures will continue to trade on the Globex electronic and Nymex ClearPort platforms on normal schedule.
Mounting US economic problems, including high energy costs, have prompted analysts to cut forecasts for oil demand growth and helped cut crude prices by 10 percent from the record of $100.09 hit January 3. Amid recession fears, analysts said investors would look out for corporate earnings and prospects for help from central banks as guidance this week.