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Oil Prices

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Oil prices held steady and hovered at a seven-week low of about $123 a barrel on Monday, pausing from a decline that has knocked more than $23 off crude in two weeks, despite escalating tensions in Iran and Nigeria.

Analysts said geopolitical tensions -

were being overshadowed by worries of slowing oil demand, as recent reports showed fuel consumption in the United States and other industrialized nations has begun to slide, dragging oil down from record peaks over $147 a barrel on July 11. "The market is taking more notice of supply and demand issues, so that's swaying sentiment at the moment," said Mark Pervan, a senior commodities analyst at the Australian & New Zealand (ANZ) bank in Sydney.

Expectations that OPEC-Kingpin Saudi Arabia would be raising crude supplies by an additional 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) for July, on top of the extra 200,000 bpd brought on last month, were also weighing on sentiment, Pervan said.

Crude speculators on the New York Mercantile Ex - change shifted to a net short position in the week to July 22, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday. It was the first time speculators have been short crude oil positions since Feb. 13, 2007.

Rising demand in emerging economies like China launched oil on a six-year rally that sent prices up sevenfold at their peak. The sharp drop has some analysts - forecasting oil prices may have peaked, with Lehman Brothers predicting $90 a barrel by the end of the first quarter of 2009.

Clara Luciana, Yogyakarta - (1690 spacer.gif/wikan)

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