Saudi plan fails to stem oil price rise

NEW YORK - Oil prices rose yesterday on disappointment over Saudi Arabia's modest production increase and concerns that output from Nigeria will decline. Retail gas prices, meanwhile, inched lower Sunday night, but appear unlikely to change much as long as oil prices stay in their current trading range. Saudi Arabia said Sunday at a meeting of oil producing and consuming nations that it would turn out more crude oil this year if the market needs it. The kingdom said it would add 200,000 barrels a day in July to an increase of 300,000 barrels a day that it announced in May, raising total daily output to 9.7 million barrels. But that pledge at the meeting in the Saudi city of Jiddah fell far short of U.S. hopes for a larger increase. The United States and other nations argue that oil production has not kept up with increasing... [read full story]