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Oil prices climb above $51

AFP, Singapore
Oil prices rose further above 51 dollars a barrel in Asian trade Thursday as speculative trading offset the impact of comments from OPEC's president that the cartel may increase production, dealers said.
At 12:55 pm (0455 GMT), New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April was up 23 cents to 51.40 dollars a barrel from its close of 51.17 dollars on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.
World oil prices cooled Wednesday in New York as the president of OPEC hinted at a possible output hike amid a cold snap in the northern hemisphere.
"If prices continue to increase, there will be a reaction from OPEC to help reduce these prices as it did
throughout 2004," Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries president and Kuwaiti Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah said Wednesday.
Victor Shum, an analyst at energy consultancy firm Purvin and Gertz, attributed Thursday's rise to speculators.
"There is no doubt that there's a fair bit of downward correction from the events of the past week, but some amount of speculator trading by hedge funds and institutional investors remains," Shum said.
"The rebound of the US dollar, after it became clear that the market had misinterpreted the South Korean central bank's report, shows that the market is actively looking out for bits of news."
The dollar steadied Wednesday after South Korea's central bank denied it planned to shed its dollar
assets, saying there had been "misunderstanding" over its previous day's statement.
South Korea has the world's fourth largest dollar reserves and speculation over its holdings of the US currency highlighted concerns in other Asian countries over their huge exposure to the US unit.
World oil prices rose to threemonth highs on Tuesday on the back of a cold snap in the northern hemisphere.
Prices would remain high over the next couple of weeks before an OPEC meeting on March 16, with the market continuing to be on edge, Shum said.
"More OPEC members are coming forward to try and calm the market, but strong global demand, particularly from China and other Asian countries, will continue to support the high prices," he said.