Earlier on Monday, the New York Mercantile Exchange August crude contract was traded at $20.70 per barrel, twice the 12-year low of $10.35 that was traded seven months ago.

NYMEX crude had also traded as high as $20.70 on Friday.

For some traders, the level of $20.70 sparked automatic sell orders based on analysis of price charts, but brokers said the volume of sales on Monday was light, indicating there was no great rush to sell.

Brent crude futures, traded on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange, were unquoted and untraded by 0730 GMT.

The September Brent contract however closed in London on Friday at the day's high of $19.38 per barrel, just its 20-month peak of $19.40, reached on Thursday.

OPEC resolve to cut production so that dwindling global stocks could force oil prices higher during 1999.

More lately, the loss of gasoline production in the UnitedStates has added to the worries about tight oil supplies.

Oil rose to a fresh 20-month peak on Friday and Monday despite some relatively bearish comments from oil ministers.

On Friday, Mexican oil minister Luis Tellez said in Washington that he reckoned oil prices were near a peak.

``I wouldn't be very much worried on (oil) prices going much further up,'' he said in an interview with Reuters Television. ``They will stay, I think, at reasonable levels below the 1997 averages that we had.''

Mexico is not a member of OPEC but is fully behind global production restraint.

Venezuelan oil minister Ali Rodriguez said on Friday that OPEC could take corrective action on oil supplies when it meets in Vienna in September, alluding at possibly raising production.

``We do not rule our taking corrective measures nor maintaining the (oil supply) measures,'' he told reporters.

Critically, he said oil stock levels rather than price would be more important to OPEC in setting its oil production policy.