oil prices

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Oil prices have risen after an OPEC source said the oil producers cartel was "very likely" to hold an emergency output meeting later this month.

"It is very likely that this is what will happen," an OPEC source told AFP when asked about market rumours of a Cairo output meeting of OPEC ministers on November 29.

"This is what is in the air ... it should be announced soon," added the source, who asked not to be named.

Oil prices rose but not before they had slumped to a three-and-a-half-year low point close to $US50 a barrel in London trading owing to weaker energy demand caused by a global economic slowdown.

Crude futures have slumped by about two-thirds compared to record highs of above $US147 a barrel in July, when fears of supply disruptions had sent them rocketing.

In Thursday's trade, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in December tumbled to $US50.60 a barrel - the lowest point since May 2005.

Later on London's InterContinental Exchange (ICE), the contract recovered to stand at $US52.63, up 26 cents from Wednesday's close.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), light sweet crude for December added 48 cents to $US56.64 a barrel in Thursday's trade. Earlier it had hit $US54.67 - the lowest level since January 2007.

OPEC's Arab members were meanwhile to meet in Cairo on November 29 but analysts said it could be turned into a meeting of all the cartel's members in order to announce a further cut in production.

The cartel's next meeting of all its member nations is not officially scheduled to take place until December 17 in Oran, Algeria.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which pumps about 40 per cent of the world's oil, recently agreed to cut output by 1.5 million barrels a day from November 1 to counter falling prices.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) slashed its 2009 oil price forecast to $US80 from $US110, saying imminent recession was strangling demand in rich countries and crimping emerging economies.

The IEA made further big cuts to its estimates of global demand growth in its monthly report but said that despite recent heavy price falls to the $US60 range, prices on futures contracts still hovered around $US85 a barrel.