Oil prices fluctuate on OPEC comments

NEW YORK -- Oil futures fell Monday but came back from earlier lows after Saudi Arabia's oil minister appeared to defuse rumors the oil cartel might agree to boost production at a meeting this weekend.

However, Ali Naimi left open the possibility the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will agree to increase output during a meeting in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, next month.

"(Production will be discussed) when OPEC meets in Abu Dhabi, not here," he told Dow Jones Newswires in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where this weekend's meeting will be held. "This is not meant to be that kind of a meeting."

Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell $1.70 to settle at $94.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling as low as $93.54 earlier.

Gasoline prices, meanwhile, rose 0.1 cent overnight to a national average of $3.101 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices have risen 34 cents a gallon in a little under a month, following oil futures higher.

The Chicago area's average price for a gallon on Monday was $3.206, according to AAA.

"For the first time, the markets may have stumbled on a possible trigger to induce some justified profit-taking," said Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global UK Ltd., in a research note. "This is coming our way from none other than the Saudis, who let it be known over the weekend that the cartel, in fact, could 'discuss' a quota release," or increase in crude output.