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OIL prices moved higher in Asian trade on Thursday on the eve of an Opec meeting expected to see the cartel announce plans to cut production, dealers said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, rose 75 cents to US$67.50 (S$101.40) a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for December delivery was 74 cents higher at US$65.26.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is to meet on Friday in Vienna with the global financial system facing its worst crisis since the Great Depression.
Several of Opec's key member countries are calling for a cut to the cartel's output of between one and 2.5 million barrels a day to help shore up oil prices, but heavyweight Saudi Arabia has yet to reveal its preference.
Opec President Chakib Khelil said Wednesday that the cartel must weigh the impact of a prospective decision to cut oil output on both consumers and producers hit by the global financial crisis.
'This is going to be a very important meeting,' said Mr Khelil, the energy minister for Opec member Algeria.
'It comes in the middle of a financial crisis where lots of countries have been affected,' he said.
He said that Opec did not want producers affected by the financial crisis to be further hit by 'very low' oil prices, which reduce their incomes. Opec's 12 members together pump about 40 per cent of the world's crude.
Crude prices have more than halved since reaching record highs above US$147 in July, pulled down mainly by worries that energy demand will be hit as growth weakens in industralised nations, especially the United States.
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