Oil prices edge up, trading thin ahead of Christmas

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent crude oil prices edged up on Tuesday following a volatile session the day before that saw contracts jump over 2 percentage points before falling back to not much more than $60 a barrel.

Asian trading was thin, curbed by a public holiday in Japan and as many traders close their books ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Front-month Brent crude futures were trading at $60.42 per barrel at 0215 GMT, up 31 cents. U.S. WTI crude was up 56 cents at $55.82 a barrel.

Tuesday's quiet opening followed a volatile session on Monday, when Brent prices first jumped to almost $63 a barrel on the back of strong international market performances before sliding back to not much over $60 after Saudi Arabia's powerful oil minister said OPEC would not cut production at any price.

"Brent could drop below $60 per barrel over the next six months, and WTI could fall to $50, as global oil inventories build sharply from here," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a research note.

"The faster the oil price drop, the larger the damage to the global oil industry. Oil could rebound sharply by the end of 2015," it added.

(Editing by Joseph Radford)