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NEW YORK - Oil prices fell Friday amid modest profit taking as the US dollar rebounded against key currencies.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, shed 69 cents to end at 80.50 dollars per barrel.
The contract hit the 82 dollar mark Wednesday, the highest level since October 14, 2008.
London's Brent North Sea crude for December delivery dropped 59 cents to 78.92 dollars a barrel.
Investors booked profits ahead of the weekend as the dollar rebounded against the euro and other key currencies after slumping to a 14-month low against the single European currency this week, traders said.
The falling greenback had made dollar-priced oil cheaper for buyers holding stronger currencies, stimulating crude demand and prices.
Oil market sentiment Friday was also dampened by surprising data showing Britain still mired in a deep recession in the third quarter, confounding forecasts for a return to growth after five negative quarters.
Britain had been expected to follow France and Germany out of recession after they posted growth in the second quarter but the country now looks to be in deep trouble, having to face a soaring public deficit at the same time.
"One of the dynamic is the bit of a rebound in the dollar. The surprising contraction in the UK GDP upset the balance," analyst John Kilduff of MF Global said.
"That and the recent gains and the end of the week are arguing for some profit taking," he said.
But Kilduff said oil prices could "flirt with the 90 dollar mark before the end of the year" as "there's still further weakness to be seen in the dollar."
With prices over 80 dollars at present amid a fragile global economic recovery, OPEC producers may have to reassess the market situation, some analysts said.
"The time may not quite be here yet for the key producers within OPEC to start thinking of precisely when and how to draw a line under the cycle of price defence that started last year, but that time is drawing close," analysts at Barclays said in a note to clients.
OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri said in London on Thursday that the cartel would consider ramping up crude oil production at its next meeting in December should economic growth improve and other conditions be met.
The cartel "will not hesitate to increase its production in December," he told reporters, adding the decision was dependent also on higher oil prices and no floating storage of crude.
The 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose members pump 40 percent of the world's crude oil supplies, will hold their next meeting in Luanda, Angola, on December 22.
Oil prices tumbled from historic highs of more than 147 dollars in July 2008 to about 32 dollars in December because of the global recession but have since risen on hopes of recovery.
- AFP /ls
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