Oil prices held near $41 on Friday as Opec producers conceded that their influence on rocketing prices was limited.
US light crude traded at $40.86 a barrel, around a dollar shy of a 21-year peak struck at the beginning of the week. It has risen by 29 percent this year or more than $9 a barrel. London's benchmark Brent crude was a cent up at $37.30 a barrel.
Oil ministers of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are gathering in Amsterdam for a weekend conference of energy producers and consumers. On the sidelines they will discuss a Saudi proposal to raise their production limits by 1.5 million barrels a day, but that may not be enough to quell the rally, ministers say.
"I dont think that control is in Opec's hands," said UAE Oil Obaid al-Nassau on Friday on his arrival in Amsterdam. "There are many factors behind these prices." Opec is expected to leave a formal decision on a production increase until its next official meeting in Beirut on June 3.
"While the oil market still holds above $40 a barrel that is due to factors beyond Opec's scope," Opec President Purnomo Yusgiantoro Purnomo said on Thursday. Hedge fund speculators and refinery bottlenecks in the United States were also driving the market up, he added.
US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said on Thursday he was looking at ways to boost domestic refining capacity to increase gasoline supplies. "In the short term, we are looking at how we can increase refining capability to reduce tightness in the market place," Abraham said.
He will meet Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi In Amsterdam during the producers-consumers conference. Rising demand, especially in the United States and Asia, and worries of sabotage attacks on vital Middle East infrastructure, have also combined with concern over US gasoline supplies to push price high.
The Group of Seven finance ministers is expected to express concern to Opec over oil prices when they meet this weekend. The European Union urged on Wednesday that oil producers, especially Saudi Arabia, should urgently increase production.