Oil prices targeting $85 mark as OPEC meets, dollar falls

Oil prices are trading higher in Asia on Wednesday as the US dollar lost ground, while in Austria, OPEC members meet to decide on oil output quotas, which are expected to remain unchanged for 2010.

US Light crude oil futures was up at $82.19 a barrel by 0701 GMT, after settling up $1.90 at $81.70 on Tuesday on the NYMEX, while in London Brent crude oil futures rose to $81.02 on the ICE Futures Exchange.

Oil demand is picking up and that could mean OPEC does not need to take any further action on supply this year, the group’s biggest producer, Saudi Arabia, said, as ministers prepared to rubber stamp existing outpaced targets.

“As for OPEC, expectations that it will leave production targets unchanged are now well factored in prices, so the market will place focus more on the weekly U.S. inventory report instead,” Moore added.

Crude oil futures jumped 2.4 percent on Tuesday in their highest daily percentage gain in a month, as the US dollar weakened after the US Federal Reserve renewed its pledge to keep interest rates near zero for an “extended period.”

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