Oil price inches up to $30 as US threatens to go solo on Iraq

International benchmark Brent crude rose 17 cents to $28.55 a barrel in London. US oil futures in New York were up eight cents at $29.58, within a dollar of recent 19-month highs.

Prices maintained a firm footing after the OPEC on Thursday kept supply limits on hold, defying consuming country calls to prevent a price spike as winter heating demand rises in the northern hemisphere.

‘‘We were looking forward to more oil,’’ said William Ramsay, deputy director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), adviser on energy to 26 industrialised nations.

‘‘The fact that prices are at $30 shows that the world needs more oil. Winter is almost upon us,’’ Ramsay told Reuters.

OPEC curbs, together with fears that possible military conflict in Iraq could disrupt Middle East oil supplies, have pushed up oil prices 40 per cent since the start of the year.

‘‘An OPEC quota freeze raises the spectre of much larger than normal draws on global petroleum stocks moving forward with inventories already sitting at below-normal levels,’’ said energy analyst Michael Rothman of Merrill Lynch in New York.

President George W. Bush on Thursday urged the US Congress to authorise military action against Iraq, warning the United Nations that Washington was prepared to go it alone to oust Saddam Hussein. Even in the event of war it is by no means certain that OPEC will act to blunt a price spike.

“If there is no shortage of supply and if inventories are in good shape, responding isn’T going to take away the fear of the consequences of a disaster or war or upheaval of some kind,” Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told Reuters in an interview.

“Yes, we will respond, but we will respond only when a response is meaningful,” he said. OPEC has scheduled its next meeting for December 12.