U.S. crude climbs on weaker dollar ahead of OPEC meeting

By Swetha Gopinath
SINGAPORE, Dec 4 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil prices extended
gains on Friday, buoyed by a weaker dollar, ahead a closely
watched OPEC meeting that is unlikely to alter the group's
policy of maintaining high output.
U.S. crude CLc1 was trading up 21 cents at $41.29 per
barrel at 0022 GMT, after settling up nearly 3 percent on
Thursday.
Crude prices have been choppy ahead of a policy meeting of
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in
Vienna on Friday.
OPEC will maintain output without changing the current
ceiling of 30 million barrels per day (bpd), sources told
Reuters.
The sources said there was little chance of Saudi Arabia
making a formal proposal for OPEC output cuts, contingent on
co-operation from non-OPEC, as reported by Energy Intelligence.
"News yesterday that Saudi Arabia lowered their offer prices
into the United States supports the view that Saudi Arabia has
no intention of cutting output and relinquishing any market
share," ANZ bank said on Friday.
Saudi Aramco also cut the January Arab Light official
selling price to Asia by 10 cents a barrel versus December to a
discount of $1.40 a barrel to the Oman/Dubai average.

A weak dollar lifted oil markets as it made
greenback-dominated contracts such as crude futures more
affordable for holders of other currencies.
The dollar index .DXY posted its steepest one-day decline
in more than 6 years on Thursday as the euro rallied on the
latest round of policy easing by the European Central Bank.
U.S. non-farm payrolls data, which will help indicate the
timing of a possible U.S. rate hike, is due Friday.
A 4-percent rise in heating oil HOc1 prices, which have
been depressed in recent days due to warmer-than-expected
weather in the North Eastern United States, also contributed to
the climb in U.S. crude prices.