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Crude futures rise to $30

NEW YORK APRIL 18. Oil prices topped $30 a barrel in New York Thursday for the first time this month, as traders bought futures contracts ahead of the long holiday weekend to avoid being caught short.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets next week in Austria, where it is expected to agree on oil production cuts to try to keep prices from sliding.

Traders take short positions when they expect prices to fall. The lack of significant damage to oil infrastructure in Iraq or elsewhere in the Middle East has raised concerns the market could be glutted by extra oil pumped by OPEC in anticipation of a supply disruption that never happened. Those concerns have caused oil prices to drop by about 25 per cent in New York since their prewar peak of $39.99 a barrel. To counter that slide, OPEC has scheduled an emergency meeting for next Thursday. — AP

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