Oil prices have heald steady ahead of a key OPEC meeting in Qatar later today to discuss output policy. In Asia overnight, US reference light sweet crude futures for July settlement were up 2c at USD31.75 a barrel after closing at USD31.73 in New York last night. They hit a high of USD31.78 and a low of USD31.60. "The expectation is OPEC will probably keep the quotas unchanged," said an oil trader with a Japanese firm. "There is still uncertainty about Iraqi exports hitting the market."
The market was also awaiting the weekly US oil inventory data later today from the American Petroleum Institute and the Department of Energy, he said. "If there aren't much changes in the US inventory and OPEC does not cut production, prices will probably hover at USD30-32 in the next week or two." //www.fxcentre.com