Oil prices fell back toward the end of the week in London from new 10-year highs earlier in the week after the US government indicated a willingness to consider pumping oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
Oil futures finished the week below 33 dollars a barrel in London for the first time in six weeks.On Monday, oil prices spiked to new 10-year highs amid sceptism that an extra 800,000 barrels of oil promised from October 1 from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would be sufficient to cool the market.
The prospect that Iraq might halt its supply of crude oil in protest of a territorial dispute with southern neighbour Kuwait cast a shadow over the market, but eased slightly after Iraq continued to pump oil through the week.
Meanwhile, coffee prices fell to their lowest levels in three weeks after major producers Indonesia and Vietnam said they would not join a scheme proposed by the Association of Organisation of Coffee Producing Countries to reduce supplies in order to boost prices.
The price of gold remained unchanged from the preceding week, despite an auction of 25 tonnes of gold by the Bank of England that was 2.6 times subscribed.—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse.
