Oil prices slipped on world markets on Friday, as worries about the impact of massive power outages in eastern North America abated, analysts said.
New York's light sweet crude benchmark September contract edged down US$0.04 to US$31.05 per barrel.
London's Brent North Sea crude oil for October delivery fell US$0.06 per barrel to US$28.81.
The focus, however, was on fuels.
Gasoline prices rose US$0.0231 to US$0.9994 a gallon in New York trade as the market fretted over the power cut's impact on refineries and supplies, analysts said.
"The primary feature was gasoline," said AG Edwards futures research director Bill O'Grady.
"Gasoline prices were very strong, really because there are fears about refining issues. But we don't think they are going to be that bad," O'Grady said. "From what we know right now I think it is pretty amazing that there were not more problems."
New York City and much of the northeast were paralyzed by the blackout, which struck almost simultaneously from New Jersey to Toronto.
Initial panic that the wave of darkness meant a terrorist attack abated when officials stressed it was merely a technical glitch that had caused the largest-ever "rolling blackout".
OPEC's basket price of seven world crudes held above its target range of US$22 to US$28 for the 10th day in a row on Thursday, though it slipped to US$28.02 per barrel from US$28.61 on Wednesday.
Under OPEC's informal price adjustment mechanism, the grouping would hike output by 500,000 barrels per day if its basket price remained above US$28 per barrel for 20 working days.
But OPEC Secretary General Alvaro Silva Calderon said that the fact that the basket price had been above the upper band limit for some days was not any cause for alarm, as speculation was playing a large part in the movement of prices.
"As with all other issues, OPEC will carefully look at the situation, and, if necessary, take the appropriate measures," he told the cartel's own news agency at its Vienna headquarters.
Global supply and demand fundamentals appeared balanced, with prices affected by factors outside the market, he said.
OPEC ministers, who agreed on July 31 to leave output unchanged at their fifth meeting this year, are next scheduled to gather on Sept. 24 in Vienna.
Meanwhile, a fire that hit Iraq's key oil export pipeline to Turkey resulted from an act of sabotage, the country's top oil ministry official said yesterday.
"The fire now on the Turkey pipeline was sabotage," said Thamer Ghadhban, referring to the pipeline linking Iraq's northern oilfields around Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
The US Army said earlier Saturday that firefighters were trying to extinguish the blaze, which broke out Friday.
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