OPEC sees no need to trim output

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil eased on Monday as OPEC”s president  said he saw no need to rein in output and oil major Total  (TOTF.PA: Quote ,Profile ,Research )  said it would restart its French refineries after  unions ended a strike.

U.S. light sweet crude for July delivery (CLc1: Quote ,Profile ,Research )  eased 36  cents to $48.29 a barrel. London Brent crude was down 31 cents at $47.72 a barrel.

A two-week slide has wiped 7 percent off prices and taken oil nearly $10 below its early April record high, as the  dollar”s rally to a seven-month peak versus the euro convinces  some hedge funds to move money back into foreign exchange  markets.

Speculative traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange  (NYMEX) have switched to a net short crude oil position for the  first time in four months, U.S. data showed on Friday.

The president of the Organization of the Petroleum  Exporting Countries said on Friday that the cartel was content  to allow prices to ease into the $40 to $45 range and saw no  need to cut production when it next meets on June 15.

&#34There is no need to trim, we will continue at this level,&#34  Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah, also Kuwait”s oil minister, told  Reuters in an interview last Friday.

Since early February, U.S. crude oil inventories have  climbed more than 13 percent to their highest level in six  years, pumped up by near-record OPEC production meant to create  a bigger cushion for an expected jump in winter demand.

Qatar”s oil minister warned on Monday that global oil  inventories were piling up too quickly and urged OPEC producers  to act with caution.

Abdullah al-Attiyah stopped short of saying the cartel  would have to cut excess supply above its formal output  ceiling, now running close to one million barrels per day  (bpd).

&#34This is something we have to talk about at our next  meeting,&#34 Attiyah told Reuters. &#34I”m concerned that stocks are  building too quickly. We have to be very careful.&#34

The oil minister of Venezuela, typically a price hawk, said  at the weekend OPEC would have to consider cutting output.

TOTAL RESTARTING REFINERIES

Prices also eased after European oil major Total said at  the weekend that its five refineries in France halted by a  strike would be back in operation by early on Monday.

Over the course of last week, Total had been forced to shut  down plants that refine more than 900,000 barrels per day (bpd)  of crude due to a strike over a public holiday, sparking  worries of a squeeze on motor fuels ahead of the summer.

Total is the largest European exporter of gasoline to the  United States, where demand spikes during the summer as drivers  take to the roads for vacations.

The driving season typically  begins over the Memorial Day holiday, this weekend.