Oil Rises on Modest Saudi Increase

Monday, oil prices rose because of disappointment over Saudi Arabia's modest production increase and concerns that output from Nigeria will decline. Meanwhile, retail gas prices inched lower overnight but appear unlikely to change much as long as oil prices stay in a trading range. The gas prices are not dropping any around here. That is for sure. Saudi Arabia said Sunday at a meeting of oil producing and consuming nations, that it would add 200,000 barrels per day in July to a 300,000 barrel production increase it first announced in May. Thus raising total daily output to 9.7 million barrels. That pledge at the meeting fell far short of U.S. hopes for a larger increase.