Crude oil rose amid indications that OPEC is implementing production cuts announced last month and may reduce output further. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries won’t hesitate to cut output further if prices keep falling, Secretary General Abdalla el-Badri said at the World Economic Forum yesterday. Emmanuel Egbogah, a petroleum adviser to Nigeria’s president, said a “downward review of quotas may be necessary.” Figures from industry consultant Oil Movements showed OPEC will lower shipments by 0.7 percent in the four weeks to Feb. 14. “Data from tanker-tracking agencies indicate the cartel is adhering to the cuts,” said Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global in Connecticut. “The markets seem to be giving OPEC the benefit of the doubt, which explains why prices have been holding above the $40 mark.” Crude oil for March delivery was at $41.86 a barrel, up 42 cents, or 1 percent, at 11:02 a.m. London time on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are heading for a 10 percent decline this week and are down 7.2 percent in January, the seventh straight monthly decline. “There’s been so much weak economic data, demand is probably going to weaken further,” said Helen Henton, head of commodity research at Standard Chartered Plc in London. “At the same time there’s a recognition OPEC has stepped up and done what it needs to do.” Japan Jobless Japan headed for its worst postwar recession as factory output slumped a record 9.6 percent, orders for U.S. durable goods fell for a fifth consecutive month in December and the number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits soared to a record. “What you find with oil prices is that they are a real proxy for global growth, and global growth is going to be awful this year, so oil prices will reflect that,” Mark Pervan, a senior commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Melbourne, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We see oil prices sliding back to $30 over the next quarter.” Labor unrest in the refining industry has also bolstered prices in the past day. The United Steelworkers union may reject the third contract offer from Royal Dutch Shell Plc covering workers at U.S. refineries with almost two-thirds of the country’s capacity. The current agreement expires Feb. 1. In the U.K., workers at Ineos Group Holdings Plc’s Grangemouth refinery in Scotland walked out as protests against foreign employees at Total SA’s Lindsey refinery spread, the BBC reported today. As many as 300 people took part in the Grangemouth action, the report said. OPEC Reduces Shipments OPEC, producer of more than 40 percent of the world’s oil, will load 23.55 million barrels a day in the four-week period, down from 23.71 million in the four weeks to Jan. 17, tanker- tracker Oil Movements said in a report yesterday. The group set a production ceiling of 24.845 million barrels a day as of Jan. 1 for its 11 members with quotas, 4.2 million barrels a day lower than its output in September. Iraq is the only member not subject to the group’s quotas. BP Plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company, said it may shut four U.S. refineries with union workers that can process 1.3 million barrels a day of crude oil if the steelworkers’ union goes on strike. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Shell are preparing to keep their U.S. plants running if there is a work stoppage. Brent crude oil for March settlement was at $46.19 a barrel, up 79 cents, on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange at 11:02 a.m. London time. It yesterday rose 50 cents, or 1.1 percent, to end the session at $45.40 a barrel.

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