New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, rose five cents to 47.12 dollars a barrel in afternoon trade. The contract hit a two-month high of 48.83 in intraday trade on Monday.
Brent North Sea crude for April climbed 29 cents to 44.42.
"Crude oil prices may be dictated by noise of further production cuts from OPEC nations this week... which might push oil prices toward 50 dollars," said Nimit Khamar of British brokerage Sucden Financial.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which pumps 40 percent of the world's oil, is due to meet on Sunday in Vienna, and Libya's envoy to the group said that output cuts were a possibility.
"I will not say that we are going to cut but I will not exclude it. All options are open," envoy Shukri Ghanem said.
"We will evaluate the world situation of the (crude) stocks, the price movement, the interpretation of the different countries... and then we can take a decision. But we don't have a decision at this time."
Source: AFP
Author: Ksenia Kochneva
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Oil Prices Go Up in Asia
Oil prices extended gains in Asian trade Tuesday on expectations that OPEC will announce another output cut this weekend, AFP reported
