Oil higher in Asia on OPEC chief's comments

World oil prices were higher in Asian trade today, pushed up in reaction to OPEC's comments that the cartel was prepared for "further measures" to shore up the market, analysts said.

Prices were also partly boosted by a severe cold spell sweeping across the northeast United States, they said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for February delivery put on $1.27 to $39.05 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for February delivery added 26 cents to $45.09 a barrel.

OPEC oil producers are prepared for "further measures" to shore up crude prices, the cartel's secretary general said Tuesday, adding that it was too soon to determine the impact of an output cut that took effect January 1.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at a meeting in December agreed to reduce production by 2.2 million barrels a day at the start of the year.

"All in all, we will not know the full effect of the latest 2.2-million-barrel-a-day reduction, and the degree to which member countries have adhered to it, until February 15," secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri said in an interview with OPEC's monthly bulletin.

He said that after February 15 the OPEC secretariat would review the market and present its findings to an OPEC conference in March.

"If then the market is still over-supplied, the conference will not hesitate to take further measures to balance the market."

Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz, said prices were reacting to the latest comments by the OPEC chief but doubted if the gains could be sustained.