Oil prices climbed Tuesday within reach of 60 dollars a barrel in New York amid worries that colder weather in the northeastern United States could boost demand for heating fuels.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery, rose three cents to close at 59.94 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract reached an intraday high of 60.80 dollars a barrel on Monday, its highest level in a month. Oil prices are nearly 16 percent below the late August all-time high of 70.85 dollars after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast.

But in London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for January delivery slipped 12 cents to end at 57.61 dollars a barrel.

The New York contract was earlier well above 60 dollars but gave up much of its gains as traders looked to Wednesday's release of weekly oil inventory figures from the US Department of Energy.

Milder weather during October and much of November across the United States and Europe has allowed refiners to build up stocks of heating fuel ahead of the peak-demand northern hemisphere winter.

With this in mind, market expectations are for a rise of 1 million barrels in US distillate reserves when the Department of Energy publishes its stockpiles data. Distillates include diesel and heating oils.

Analysts forecast a 1-million-barrel decline in US crude stocks.

Further ahead, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to meet in Kuwait City on December 12 for its latest production decision.

OPEC president and Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al- Sabah has said he will recommend that the cartel "continue with our production and to not make any cut at the next meeting."

OPEC, which provides over a third of the world's crude oil, has set its official production quota at 28 million barrels per day, but has an option to pump an additional 2 million bpd depending on demand.

Source: Xinhua