Crude oil fell as members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries discussed whether to hold a special meeting and Libyan rebels prepared an offensive to regain a town. Crude slipped as much as 2 percent after Kuwait’s oil minister said OPEC members are considering whether to convene an “urgent meeting.” Futures trimmed losses as opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sought to recapture Bin Jawad. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Merrill Lynch today raised oil-price forecasts. “OPEC may schedule a meeting to discuss increasing production,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. “The OPEC news and signals that the U.S. may release some strategic reserves is making some investors think twice about being long.” Crude oil for April delivery dropped 87 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $104.57 a barrel at 9:41 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $106.95 yesterday, the highest intraday price since Sept. 26, 2008. Brent crude oil for April settlement slipped $1.86, or 1.6 percent, to $113.18 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Kuwait’s oil minister told reporters in Kuwait City today that OPEC Secretary General Abdulla El-Badri is contacting members to see whether a meeting on production levels is needed. “I’ve talked to Abdulla El-Badri in this regard and he is calling everybody and making a consensus on whether we’ll need an OPEC meeting, an urgent meeting,” Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said. “We have to find out at the meeting whether there is a need for an increase or not.” Light, Sweet Crude Violence in Libya, Africa’s third-largest crude producer, has cut output by as much as 1 million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency. The North African country pumped 1.39 million barrels a day in February, down from 1.59 million the previous month, according to Bloomberg estimates. Vienna-based researcher JBC Energy GmbH estimated Libya accounts for 8.8 percents of total global production of light, sweet crude, or crude oil with low density and sulfur content. This type of crude yields more lucrative fuels such as gasoline and diesel when processed. “The loss of Libyan light, sweet crude poses a threat to profitability of Europe’s already troubled refining industry,” JBC said today in an e-mailed note. “This is due to the fact that refineries rely heavily on high-quality crudes to produce value-added products and minimize expensive processing.” Little Supply Effect Some OPEC members and producers outside the group have made up for the reduction in crude shipments from Libya, Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed Saleh al Sada said today. “There was hardly any effect” on supply because of the Libyan unrest, he said at a conference in Doha. The group’s next formal meeting is scheduled for June 8 in Vienna. Most OPEC members were already producing more than their individual quotas before the Libyan unrest. Demonstrations have toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and there have been protests in countries including Iran, Yemen and Oman. In Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest producer, websites have called for a nationwide “Day of Rage” on March 11 and March 20, according to Human Rights Watch. Goldman Sachs raised its second-quarter outlook for Brent crude by $4.50 to $105 a barrel, citing estimates that spare capacity in OPEC has dropped below 2 million barrels a day, according to a report dated yesterday. Bank of America Merrill Lynch increased its Brent crude price forecast for this year to $108 a barrel from $88 and for next year to $95 a barrel from $85, the bank said in a note today. To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net

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