Saudi’s Comments Boost Oil Prices

Oil prices rose more than 5% after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said OPEC may try to bolster prices by cutting output quotas to the lowest level since the Persian Gulf War.

OPEC’s goal is to defend oil prices, even if that means losing market share, Ali Ibrahim Naimi said at a conference in Morocco, Dow Jones Newswires reported. A crude oil index OPEC watches has dropped 33% since the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks as demand dropped from slowing world economies.

Near-term oil futures rose $1.08 to $21.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the biggest gain since Sept. 14, the first trading day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Prices are down 36% from a year ago, when oil was rising toward a 10-year high of about $36 a barrel.