Commodity Online
ABUDHABI : World oil prices showed signs of recovery in Asian trade Friday after some OPEC members including the UAE joined Saudi Arabia in deepening supply curbs to comply with the cartel’s biggest-ever crude output cut last week.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), the main producer in the UAE, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, said it will cut supplies of February Murban and Upper Zakum allocations by 15 percent and Lower Zakum and Umm Shaif by 10 percent each, in line with OPEC supply curbs.

These are the deepest cuts since it started lowering allocations in November. ADNOC had earlier cut allocations for January oil exports of Murban crude by 15 percent below normal contractual supplies, while Upper Zakum will be cut by 3 percent from the norm and told refiners it would stiffen shipping limits on exports of its main grades.

Crude for February delivery jumped 90 cents to $36.25 a barrel by 2.00 p.m Singapore time after rising more than $1 to as high as $36.46 earlier.

It settled down 9.3 percent, or $3.63, on Wednesday, not far off the more than four and a half year low struck a week ago.

London Brent crude rose 52 cents to $37.13. Markets were closed on Thursday for Christmas Day.

Oil has fallen about $110 a barrel since its mid-July peak, as the global financial crisis bit into fuel demand, spurring OPEC producers to cut 5 percent of world oil production to stem the slide.

Oil tumbled on Wednesday on news that US jobless claims had risen to a 26-year high and consumers had cut spending for the fifth consecutive month in November, reinforcing expectations of a prolonged slowdown in energy consumption.

Reliance Industries began processing crude on Thursday at a new 580,000-bpd refinery in western India, which would make it the world's single biggest supplier of fuels to world markets, just as global demand retreated.

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