As the Environment Agency calls for water meters in virtually all homes in England and Wales, we look at some of the issues for consumers. Most meters use a positive displacement chamber which has a fixed amount of water flowing through it that turns a dial to measure water usage for a household. Meters are usually installed in the most suitable location determined by the pipe layout, which may be in the road, garden or indoors. You local water company will then visit to check your water meter reading and calculate how much to charge, much like gas and electricity meters. All homes built since 1990 are fitted with water meters. It is estimated about a third of properties have them.

The argument in favour of a meter is straightforward: You pay for what you use. The Consumer Council for Water found customers considered metering to be the fairest billing method, but they still liked to have a choice. The Environment Agency makes the case that paying per volume is the fairest way to pay and that it gives people an incentive to use less water, benefiting the environment. To meter everybody regardless of their circumstances or how many children they have is absolutely a recipe for disaster

It is said homes with meters use on average 10% to 15% less water than those without. People who cut their water use often find other bills fall as well, as about 40% of energy bills go on heating water for washing dishes and clothes, bathing and showering. Another benefit is the meter allows you to see whether you have a leak. Domestic customers are entitled to a “leakage allowance”, so you do not have to pay for the water lost through a proven leak, according to the Consumer Council for Water. Water UK, which represents water companies, said metering also allowed the possibility to introduce more adapted tariff structures in the future. The disadvantages of meters are that your bills may rise.

The Campaign for Water Justice said the poorest and most lowly-paid households could end up facing higher bills. “To meter everybody regardless of their circumstances or how many children they have is absolutely a recipe for disaster,” said Neil Fishpool, from the campaign group.

Soaring costs have forced British Gas owner Centrica to postpone building a giant £750million offshore wind turbine farm. This is the latest setback for the Government, which is relying on wind power over the next decade to help the UK achieve tough green energy targets. Last week, Spain’s Iberdrola, the world’s biggest investor in wind power, admitted that investment in the UK would fall by 40 per cent this year. Centrica is still keen for the 250 megawatt wind farm near Skegness, Lincolnshire, to be developed, but the board will not sanction the move because of rising costs. The company has a £4billion war chest to spend on wind projects over the next five years and it still hopes it will be able to go on to become the country’s largest wind power investor and operator. Centrica has all the permission necessary to build the wind farm, which would be capable of supplying 170,000 homes, but the price of turbines, which are made overseas, continues to soar because of the weak pound, while engineering costs are escalating as steel prices rise.

In an attempt to kick-start the investment, Centrica and the Government have been in talks aimed at giving industry a bigger incentive to develop wind farms. The group wants Whitehall to offer increased concessions under its wind subsidy programme. Under this scheme, for every unit of green electricity a company produces, it receives a credit from the Government that can be used to offset charges it faces from any electricity it uses or produces from ‘dirty’ plants such as coalfired power stations. Energy Minister Mike O’Brien is said to be determined to create the conditions that will allow the wind industry to go ahead with its investments, without which the UK would miss its climate change targets.
Tomorrow he will spell out how the Government will further encourage the industry by offering generous research and development grants for a new generation of giant wind turbines. He will also say he is working with the Treasury to come up with more financial inducements to attract investment. 

Opus Energy, the independent supplier of electricity to UK businesses, has recently signed Halfords, bringing the total number of UK business sites it supplies up to 50,000. Now the largest electricity supplier to UK businesses outside the Big Six, Opus Energy has expanded further in the last 12 months:

Halfords has entered into a two year contract with Opus Energy, with the supply starting in April 2009. Opus Energy will provide 52GWh to the bicycle and motoring specialist chain, across 440 sites. Opus Energy is attracting a growing number of large corporate customers through the development of a unique wholesale purchasing platform, Opus Evolution.

Opus Evolution gives companies control of their energy purchasing strategies, enabling them to choose how much energy they purchase and when. For example, in a volatile market companies using Opus Evolution have the flexibility to purchase a smaller percentage of their total energy demand over a number of purchases rather than being restricted to one buying opportunity per year. Opus Evolution offers an alternative to a fixed price contract for the first time to this sector,

Andy Taylor, Commercial Manager at Halfords said: “Opus Evolution will be a very useful tool for us. We can control our energy purchasing across the whole portfolio, but also monitor the consumption levels at each site using the online reporting tool. This is really key for us as a retail company with a large number of active sites to manage.”

Steve James, Commercial Director for Opus Energy said: “We’ve drawn on extensive retail sector experience to provide a tailored solution for Halfords. Opus Evolution will give Halfords control over their energy needs and projected spend, but we as a team can also help them on a day to day basis. They will benefit from a single point of contact at Opus to simplify account management, and as Halfords are a growing company we can help by quickly connecting new sites to their expanding portfolio.”

On the news that Opus Energy is now supplying 50,000 business sites across the UK, Charlie Crossley Cooke, MD and founder of Opus Energy said: “It’s fantastic to reach this landmark. Customers are our core business and we re-sign a very high number of our accounts as a result of a focus on excellent customer service. We’ve grown the Opus Energy business by listening to our customers’ needs and finding solutions. The Opus Evolution product is a great example of this – a unique answer to a market wide problem. It is this type of innovation which will help us continue to expand into 2009.”

Opus Energy: is a leading independent supplier of electricity offering tailor-made solutions for the UK SME and corporate markets. Its market-leading innovations are driven by customer needs and the company is committed to helping businesses reduce their carbon footprint through procurement of energy from cleaner sources. Opus Energy supplies 50,000 UK business sites across all sectors. Large customers include: Stagecoach, Thorntons, Farmfoods, FirstGroup, Cumbria County Council.

Over the last two years (between April 2006 and March 2008), 62% of the energy supplied by Opus Energy to its customers came from cleaner, low-carbon sources – 54% from renewable generators and 8% from cleaner Combined Heat and Power (CHP) produced by CHP generators. These CHP generators have been awarded accreditation by the regulator, Ofgem, for producing cleaner, more environmentally friendly power.

Opus Energy’s management team has a 50 percent stake in the business, while International Power Plc holds 30 percent and Telecom Plus Plc has 20 percent. With offices in Northampton and Oxford, it employs 200 people.

It looks like the long-awaited roll-out of smart meters in the UK has been put back yet again. An announcement from the Department of Environment and Climate Change had been expected last year, and then again at the start of this year. Now energy industry and government sources are saying that an announcement could come in April. The UK’s difficulties are a lesson to other countries seeking to press ahead with smart meter and smart grid technologies. The British government has already signalled that it is in favour of smart meters, which promise to give households the information they need to use less energy, as well as to allow for more accurate billing by energy suppliers. But it has yet to decide how the project will be rolled out.

One option would be to leave it to the market and allow energy companies to supply smart meters to their customers whenever they like. The other extreme would be divide the country into regional franchises, awarding contracts to companies to supply meters to these areas in bulk. Most people agree that the free market model would lead to a very slow roll-out, whereas the regional franchise model would be quicker but would compromise the concept of the UK’s liberalised energy market.

It looks likely, therefore, that a compromise solution will be chosen. The government is expected to award a multi-billion pound contract to create a centralised communications system for gathering data from smart meters. Energy suppliers will then be able to choose their own meter technology, as long as it is compatible with the communications system, and roll out smart meters to their customers at their own pace.

Installing smart meters is vital for making progress in micro-generation. If households are to generate their own power through solar panels and mini-wind turbines, they need to be able to measure how much power they sell back to the national grid.

But the real prize could be less peak demand for energy and therefore a reduced need for new power stations. Energy companies, although they don’t like to talk about it, would like to introduce different tariffs for different times of the day, and plan to charge customers more to use electricity during peak hours, such as the early evening. They would also make it cheaper to use power during off-peak times, such as late at night. This should smooth out power consumption and reduce the total amount of power generation capacity that needs to be available.

As energy companies come under pressure to ensure the lights won’t go out as older power stations shut down, the gains from smart metering look more attractive than ever.

Severn Trent Plc, the U.K.’s second-biggest water company, kept an outlook of sales falling by as much as 25 million pounds in the fiscal year ending March 31st. Sales will be lower because of a “decline in consumption across our measured income base,” the Birmingham, England-based company said today in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. This figure excludes sales from unregulated activities, which account for about 15 percent of total revenue. Severn Trent said in January water consumption had fallen more than previously forecast, mainly because of reduced commercial demand. Its commercial customers included collapsed U.K. retailers Woolworths Group Plc and MFI Retail Ltd. The water industry is undergoing a pricing review, which will set tariffs and spending levels for the five-year period from 2010. Water companies in England and Wales will submit final business plans on April 7 to Ofwat, the industry regulator. The companies submitted preliminary spending plans last year, which Ofwat later said needed to be reduced. Severn Trent’s preliminary capital expenditure estimate was 3.2 billion pounds during the five years from 2010.

Ofwat will establish price limits for each company in a so- called final determination in November. The rates customers pay will then be calculated according to that limit and inflation. The inflation figure is reviewed annually by the regulator. Severn Trent supplies water and sewerage services to more than 3.7 million customers in the Midlands and mid-Wales areas. It posted profit last year of 209.5 million pounds. United Utilities Group Plc is the largest U.K. water company by market capitalization.

The consumer backlash against expensive, bottled water is gathering momentum, according to two related studies this week which reveal that more of us are content with that plain old, dirt cheap stuff that comes straight out of a tap. First of all, the UK’s restaurant-goers overwhelmingly prefer to choose tap water over bottled, according to a brand new survey issued to tie in with UN World Water Day 2009, which fell on 22 March.

The research, commissioned by international charity, WaterAid reveals that tap water is the preferred choice for 63% of people when they dine out. Over 23.5 million people prefer to order tap water with their meals rather than bottled. Yet despite this, one in four people surveyed said they have felt pressured to order bottled water when dining out.

More and more UK restaurants are offering tap water to diners as standard, which is already the norm in the US. But you still often have to ask for it – with the associated embarrassment that can cause. WaterAid’s drinking water survey also shows that women are more likely to choose tap water, while men are more inclined to have bottled water with their meal. And where people live also seems to make a difference – people in Greater London and Scotland are the most likely to choose bottled water, whereas those dining out in the South East and East Anglia are happy with a good old jug of tap.

The popularity of bottled water soared in the 1990s and the early 2000s, but is now s-o-o-o yesterday, according to figures from market research company TNS. Last year the on-going year-on-year increase in sales was halted and sales actually fell by 9%. The Guardian has highlighted what an expensive and unnecessary adornment bottled water is, even singling out Bling H2O – in frosted glass bottles adorned with Swarowski crystals and a mere snip at $55 a bottle – as the ultimate eco-unfriendly product. Tap water costs around 0.1p a litre at home. Surely it’s a no-brainer?

Which do you drink – bottled or tap? Which restaurants would you single out for their refreshing attitude to offering tap water, and which are still swimming against the consumer current?

Oil prices rose above $52 a barrel Monday, boosted by stronger stock markets and a weaker dollar amid plans by the U.S. government to buy bad assets from banks to contain the financial crisis. Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 61 cents to $52.68 a barrel by midday in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract edged up 3 cents on Friday to settle at $52.07, the first time crude ended the week above $50 since last year. In London, Brent prices were up 58 cents to $51.80 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Dealers said the rally, which was given an extra boost by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to buy $1.25 trillion of government bonds and mortgage-backed securities, continued Monday as equity markets rallied in anticipation of more good news. Stock market indexes closed mostly stronger in Asia, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gaining 4.8 percent and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo advancing 3.4 percent, while in Europe the FTSE 100 in London was up 1.6 percent and Germany’s DAX up 1.8 percent. The Fed’s move was also seen helping support oil prices, as the resulting weakening of the U.S. dollar against the euro and the British pound increased the allure of commodities like oil and gold.

KBC Market Services in Britain said there were fears that the printing of money to finance the Fed plan, “could have dire consequences for inflation and the U.S. dollar.” By midday in Europe, the euro bought $1.3642, up from $1.3551 late Friday in New York, while the British pound rose to $1.4585 from $1.4439 in the previous session.

“It could well be that speculators/investors do the job that OPEC is incapable of doing — namely sending oil prices up,” said a report from KBC Market Services in Britain.

But some cautioned the advance may not be sustainable as global oil demand remains weak.

“Oil pricing is driven by the financial rally. It’s questionable whether $50 is the new floor because the fundamental picture for oil has not changed. Demand remains weak in the near term and oil pricing may be vulnerable,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

To get at the heart of the nation’s financial crisis, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is set later Monday to detail plans to remove a mountain of toxic assets weighing on banks’ balance sheet.

The plan aims to purchase as much as $1 trillion in troubled assets, utilizing the resources of the $700 billion bank bailout fund, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

It will seek to entice private investors, including big hedge funds, to participate by offering billions of dollars in low-interest loans to finance the purchases and also sharing risks if the assets fall further in value.

If the initiative is well received, Shum said it may lend temporary momentum to the oil rally. But he warned prices could fall back to below $50 as a global economic recovery isn’t likely to occur until late in the year.

Algeria’s Energy Minister Chakib Khelil predicted Sunday that crude oil prices could hit $60 per barrel by the end of the year.

Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch has also raised its forecast for crude oil prices to $52 a barrel this year, from $50 a barrel, on the back of a tighter-than-expected oil market balance.

Sharp output cuts in recent months from OPEC nations and a worsening outlook for non-OPEC production will reduce supply in the second half this year, while global demand has stabilized, it said in a recent report. Sharp interest rate cuts and expansive fiscal policies globally will also boost energy demand or prices, it added.

It expects a shallow oil demand recovery in 2010, and sees prices at $62 a barrel next year.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for April delivery rose 0.55 cent to $1.4625 a gallon, while heating oil added 0.58 cent to $1.3892 a gallon. Natural gas for April delivery edged up 2.8 cents to $4.255 per 1,000 cubic feet.

British wholesale gas prices could fall further following a price collapse over the past two weeks and this is certain to add to pressure on utilities to cut household fuel bills. Analysts said wholesale day-ahead contracts might fall by another 5-10 percent to around 30 pence per therm after losing about 40 percent since early February as Britain’s unusually long cold spell came to an end. Recession has eroded energy demand, while more liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes are expected to arrive in the country and most nuclear power plants are back in operation after closures to relieve gas-fired generators.

“The outlook for summer is fairly weak at the moment because the supply/demand situation is pretty comfortable,” said Niall Trimble, director of the Energy Contract Company, a consulting firm. “It probably would tend to increase pressure on the big six (utilities companies) to reduce their domestic gas prices. Only two of them have actually reduced their prices at all.”

Analysts agreed day-ahead contract prices might fall in the near future towards 30 pence per therm, roughly the equivalent of oil-indexed natural gas prices in Continental Europe.

Adding to downward price pressure, many LNG cargoes have arrived in UK’s Isle of Grain terminal this winter because of weak demand in Asia and the United States. South Hook, another major LNG terminal, is also to open in the second quarter.

“We always thought LNG cargoes would not come here during the summer. But it’s a question of relative prices,” said Trimble. “Prices are also very low in the United States at the moment. There might be still more to come.”

Since the start of October, 18 LNG cargoes have made it to Isle of Grain, compared with 10 in the same period a year ago.

npower has become the latest energy provider to reduce its prices, announcing an 8% reduction in the cost of electricity – bringing customers’ bills down an average £43. Now all the top six energy providers – npower, E.ON, British Gas, EDF, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern – have announced price cuts, with E.ON offering the highest cuts of 9% for electricity. This will, however, be of little comfort to the 44% of the UK’s population who have been cutting back on essentials such as food in order to afford their winter energy bills, according to research from statutory campaigning organisation, Consumer Focus.

It stated that almost three in five people (59%) believe the cuts in energy prices will make little or no difference to their bills. Jonathan Stearn, Consumer Focus energy expert, said: “It is disgraceful that huge winter energy bills are causing such misery for so many of the most vulnerable families, pensioners and disabled people. Recent meagre energy price cuts will barely dent fuel poverty levels.”

npower has stated that its monthly direct debit ‘dual fuel’ tariff is more than £30 cheaper than that of British Gas. Kevin Miles, npower retail’s CEO, said of the company’s price cuts: “Wholesale prices are still higher than in 2007 but we are determined to reduce prices for our electricity customers. This reduction follows our price cuts for gas pre-payment customers in December.

“Gas and electricity pre-payment customers no longer pay a premium over our standard tariffs. We will continue to keep our costs and prices under review to ensure that we remain competitive and give our customers value for money.”

npower’s price cuts will come into effect on 31 March 2009.

The UK prompt power lost ground Monday after an increase in production from coal-fired plants across the country, traders said. Day-ahead baseload power fell GBP1.90/MWh to GBP34.50/MWh by the end of the morning session, by which time Tuesday peak had slid 65 pence/MWh to GBP41.50/MWh. Scottish and Southern Energy, Scottish Power and Drax Power started power units at their respective Ferrybridge, Longannet and Drax coal-fed stations, while RWE npower began producing electricity from all four units at its Didcot-A coal-fired plant, National Grid data showed. The greater availability of coal-fed stations reduce the need for costlier generators to run. Coal has recently become more important in determining the UK’s marginal capacity, meaning it has a more significant influence on power prices. However, cheaper gas prices and slightly warmer temperatures on Monday also fed into the prompt, traders said. Peak demand on Monday and Tuesday is pegged at a touch over 51 GW, while spare margins are expected to fall to 8.5 GW on Tuesday from 9.6 GW 24 hours earlier, according to data from grid manager National Grid.  On the curve, April base fell 35 p/MWh to GBP35.35/MWh, while seasonal contracts were largely flat from where they last traded on Friday. Summer 09 base was assessed at GBP36.05/MWh at noon GMT, 5 p/MWh down.

Flushing the toilet wasted too much water, David Wilks thought, and something had to be done about it. So the Yorkshire technology teacher went to his garage and set himself a challenge – inventing a flush that would release the precise amount of water required to clear the toilet bowl. His answer, a device called the Interflush, was ignored by lavatory manufacturers and failed to impress the sharpsuited business gurus on the BBC television show Dragons’ Den. Now Mr Wilks’s Mirfield-based company, Varyflush, has received its 10,000th order and the Interflush has been fitted to toilets in unlikely locations including the National Portrait Gallery, Windsor Castle and a Maltese government department. Mr Wilks, 56, said the product could reduce the UK’s water consumption by up to 20 per cent if introduced across the country. The average person uses 60 litres of water for toilet flushing each day, but much of this is wasted, he added.

“I used to be a technology teacher and schools were always banging on about alternative energy and protecting the environment,” Mr Wilks said, “but it’s all well and good talking about it; in the end, you need solutions.” The Interflush ‘retrofit kit’, made from plastic, stainless steel and brass, is fitted to a toilet siphon to offer interruptible flushing, whereby water is released for as long as the flush handle is pulled down but stops when the handle is returned to its original position.

It is a smaller version of Mr Wilks’s prototype mechanism, which was developed in 2000 and employed a full siphon that was modified to give users more control over the volume of water they flushed.

The inventor said the interruptible flushing process was forbidden by Government regulations until his prototype device proved to be successful in tests.

“In 2002 I got the authorities to agree to test my invention. It passed all the tests, so Defra then had no choice but to grant a relaxation in the regulations.

“Unfortunately, the day after I got the regulations changed, my worldwide patent rights ran out.

“I couldn’t afford to persist with the full-siphon model so I began working on a smaller retrofit product, and it has proved very successful.”

Mr Wilks promoted his product on Dragons’ Den in 2005 and, although he failed to attract investment through the show, he gained 10 minutes of valuable airtime.

This convinced him he should give up teaching and pursue the project full time, following the principles of Thomas Crapper, the Thorne-born inventor who devised the siphon flush in the 19th century.

His system was the only flush mechanism allowed in Britain until 1999, when rival valve-based mechanisms like pushbutton or dual-flush were legalised.

Mr Wilks said: “Britain is the last place on Earth to still have the siphon in any numbers.

“If the siphon goes from Britain, it is gone from the world forever.

“The siphon was invented by a Yorkshireman, and it’s going to be another Yorkshireman who saves it.”

Almost £5 billion in investment will be needed to upgrade the UK’s electricity grid network by 2020, a government report has shown. Among the extensions needed to the grid will be high-voltage subsea cable links between Scotland and England, according to the report by the Electricity Networks Strategy Group. It concluded that up to 1,000km of new cables would be needed to make sure new renewables and power stations could be connected to the grid. In Scotland, the report said up to 11.4GW of renewable generation could be expected. In order to transmit this electricity, possible measures would be the controversial upgrade of the power line between Beauly and Denny, as well as subsea links to Scottish islands. A cable beneath the sea between the Kintyre peninsula and Hunterston was also proposed in the report. In order to meet emissions targets, it is expected the UK will need to generate about 30 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

However, there is a lack of capacity in the existing grid network to be able to connect about 35GW of renewable power needed to meet the targets. Many areas suitable for renewables, such as offshore sites in the Pentland Firth off Caithness, are isolated, without current access to the grid. Mike O’Brien, the energy minister, said: “Having a grid which is fit for purpose is vital for our ambitions to cut carbon emissions and increase security of supply.” The report is the latest piece of work to come from the Transmission Access Review, which will ultimately reform the electricity grid structure for 2020. Alistair Buchanan, the chief executive of the gas and electricity watchdog Ofgem, said: “Getting the right electricity infrastructure in place so more renewable generators can connect is critical if the UK is to meet challenging new renewable targets.” He added: “The industry report proposes the use of technology so far unused in this country.

“This demonstrates a willingness to consider innovative solutions which could lead to faster build times and avoid the need to secure planning permission for onshore lines.”

Since 1998, Ebico has been leading the way in lowering household energy bills all over the UK. This is one of the few energy companies that is able to do this, because they are nonprofit. The whole business plan of Ebico is to put people before profit, to help insure affordable energy for all people. This is easy to do, because Ebico has no shareholders that it has to try to please. All their efforts go into their rates.

Ebico announced that, as of March 2nd, 2009, people from all regions of the UK would see a drop in home electricity and gas prices. The last time Ebico made an announcement about prices it was to increase them back in September of 2008. Now, when the people need them the most, Ebico has stepped once again to lower prices all around.

Gas prices are being dropped by 2.52% in all regions of the UK. The reduction of electricity is going to work a little differently. Overall there will be an average 7.74% drop over the whole region. However, certain areas will see a bigger drop while other places may see a smaller drop. For example, in London, electricity prices will drop by 8.34%. However, North of Scotland will only see prices drop by 4.49%. In other areas like Yorkshire, they will be looking at a price drop of 6.61%.

These reduced power bills could not have come at a better time for most of the families in the UK. With the rescission in full swing, people need all the help that they can get.

Click Here to compare all home suppliers

Oil hovered above $40 a barrel on Tuesday, after slumping 10 percent overnight as the deepening global recession threatened to crimp energy demand further, outweighing OPEC’s strong compliance with supply curbs. Global stocks plumbed multi-year lows on Monday, while the dollar climbed to nearly three-year highs as a record quarterly loss for US insurer AIG heightened fears about the financial sector and boosted the greenback’s safe-haven status. A slew of economic data, topped by February unemployment and non-farm payroll data on Friday, will give further clues on the state of the US economy, while inventory figures on Tuesday and Wednesday will show the impact on demand from the world’s top energy consumer.  US crude was up 4 cents to $40.19 a barrel by 10.55an, UAE time – after tumbling $4.61 overnight, while London Brent crude rose five cents to $42.26 a barrel.  “We will continue to be surprised on the bearish side by the data that’s coming out – this keeps the demand deterioration argument very much alive, and pushes the OPEC production cuts to the backburner, precluding OPEC from becoming a significant force in this market, ” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates.

 ”We anticipate that oil has further to fall – we could see a little support around $37, but it would be a surprise if the market doesn’t take out that level later this week.” The deepening of the 14-month economic slump was underscored by a report on Monday that showed US spending on construction projects slumped to its lowest level in over four years in January. US stocks extended their sharp losses on Monday as insurer American International Group, which posted a record $61.7 billion quarterly loss, was bailed out with government money again, fueling fears that the global financial crisis is worsening.

The economic crisis has prompted some members of OPEC to call for further output cuts when the group next meets on March 15. Compliance with previous cuts has been strong, with OPEC oil supply down in February for the sixth straight month, although output remained above target levels, a Reuters survey showed on Monday. Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said it was quite possible OPEC would cut again. But Iran’s Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said he did not expect another reduction because the group’s 80 percent commitment to existing curbs had helped stem price falls. US crude oil inventories are expected to have risen by an average of 900,000 barrels last week as imports rebounded, a Reuters poll of analysts showed on Monday, ahead of weekly inventory data from the API and the EIA.

The survey also projected a fall in distillate and gasoline stocks – on average a 1.5 million-barrel drop in distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, and an 800,000-barrel decrease for gasoline. Oil traders consider the API report to be less accurate than the US EIA data, which requires energy firms to respond to their weekly survey.