Oil prices rise as OPEC seeks cooperation

June 5, 2003, 11:28PM Houston Chronicle-Reuters News Service

NEW YORK -- Oil prices remained above $30 a barrel Thursday as OPEC producers Saudi Arabia and Venezuela prepared to seek assurances from non-member Mexico that it would follow the cartel in any move to tighten supply.

A meeting today in Madrid between Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and his counterparts, Venezuela's Rafael Ramirez and Mexico's Ernesto Martens, comes just days before next Wednesday's OPEC meeting in Qatar to decide third-quarter cartel production.

The three countries were the architects of drastic oil output curbs in 1998 and 1999 that laid the groundwork for a five-year price boom and are regrouping to prepare the ground for the resumption of Iraq's oil exports.

Iraq earlier on Thursday announced it was tendering to sell 10 million barrels of crude stored at export terminals, its first oil sales since the U.S.-led invasion in mid-March.

Baghdad is aiming for some 1.5 million barrels per day of production by the end of this month, over half of that set for export, although continued looting in the southern region is hampering efforts to restart supplies, an official there said Wednesday.

At the New York Mercantile Exchange, July crude futures rose 69 cents to close at $30.74 a barrel.

July heating oil futures jumped 2.01 cents to 77.23 cents a gallon, while July gasoline futures climbed 2.09 cents to settle at 88.52 cents a gallon.

Natural gas futures finished at their highest closing price in nearly 13 weeks on speculation of warmer U.S. weather in the next two weeks.

Natural gas for July delivery rose 14.6 cents to settle at $6.521 per thousand cubic feet.

In London, July North Sea Brent futures gained 84 cents to $27.65 a barrel.