Oil held steady at below $95 a barrel today as the Saudi oil minister dampened hope of an Opec output increase this week.
A slightly weaker US dollar after the currency's surge a day ago also lent support to prices, which traders said could be unusually volatile as key options contracts expire.
US light crude for December delivery shed a cent at $94.61 a barrel by 6.58am, reversing early losses of over $1 after Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the producer group would not act on output at a summit this week in Riyadh.
London Brent crude fell 11 cents at $91.87.
Mr Naimi said on Sunday that an output increase will be discussed at a meeting of the producer group. That would come on top of the 500,000 barrels per day rise that the kingdom convinced Opec to agree at a September meeting.
But he told the Financial Timesthat there will be "absolutely no discussion" of an output rise during this week's Riyadh summit, shifting the focus to Opec's next official policy meeting on December 5th in Abu Dhabi.