Oil prices rise on US output data

Oil prices rose after falling earlier.

Oil prices have risen after surprisingly good US industrial output figures and warnings of cold weather heading for the US northeast.

US light, sweet crude rose to $58.16 a barrel, having fallen to $55.29 earlier on Monday.

Brent crude rose to $54.13, having fallen to $52.84 earlier in the day.

The early falls were due to yet more bad economic news and Opec hinting that it would not be announcing any cuts in oil production soon.

US industrial output rebounded in October after a sharp fall in September, the Federal Reserve said.

Output rose by 1.3% during the month, compared with a fall of 3.7% in September - the sharpest fall in production for over 60 years.

That helped ease some fears that demand for oil would be hurt as more countries slide into recession.

Oil prices are down around 60% since their record highs of nearly $150 a barrel in July.

Prices were also hit earlier after Opec's president downplayed the chance of a November output cut.

"[Opec president] Chakib Khelil basically said that they will not cut on 29 November," said Dave Ernsberger, Asia director of global energy information provider Platts in Singapore.

Earlier it was reported Iran would call for a cut of between 1m and 1.5m barrels a day when the oil cartel meets in Cairo later this month.

But Mr Khelil said Iran's call was a "wish".

The oil cartel decided in October to cut production by 1.5m barrels a day, but this has not stopped world oil prices from falling further.