The cold snap drove crude oil futures to another four-month high as the price shoved towards $52 on forecasts of colder weather in Western Europe and US Northeast.

Crude traded at $51.40 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

U.S. Energy Department reported that the US heating oil inventories were 12% lower than their five-year seasonal average in the week ended Feb. 11. This week analysts believe that the distillates supplies lost 1.75 million barrels. The US government report is due later today.

Kuwait’s oil minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah said in Kuwait yesterday that OPEC might step up production if prices continue to rise. At the meeting scheduled for March 16 in Iran OPEC’s oil ministers might decide to cut production. However, in the light of a sharp increase in prices the cartel might indeed decide to boost output to prevent further price growth. At the moment OPEC is the only entity that can step up oil production as Russia’s oil industry is already running at maximum capacity. However, analysts are doubtful that OPEC will indeed make an effort as in the past year the cartel was passively watching the surge in oil prices.

``It’s mainly the cold snap that’s added $4 or $5 to prices, particularly with Europe having a freeze from Siberia,’’ said Jason Kenney, an analyst at ING Financial Markets in Edinburgh. ``The market is concerned that Russian supply growth won’t be outstanding and that China is drawing a lot of oil. For prices to come down, you need for supplies to go ahead of demand.’’