Commodities : Oil Futures Prices Jump

Oil futures prices took a great leap upward Thursday on the news that Saudi Arabia has called for an emergency meeting of OPEC’s price committee.

Crude oil, heating oil and gasoline advanced the limit allowed for daily trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

On some other markets, cotton futures were sharply higher, livestock and meat were mostly lower and the grains and soybeans posted strong advances. The oil market was thrown into a state of great uncertainty with the dismissal Wednesday night of Ahmed Zaki Yamani as Saudi Arabia’s oil minister.

But when the news came out that Saudi Arabia wants an emergency committee meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, prices shot up the limit allowed for daily trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

“The feeling is that if there’s going to be a change (in OPEC policy) it’s because Saudi Arabia wants higher prices,” said Richard Marose, an analyst in Chicago with Geldermann.

“They wouldn’t have gotten rid of Yamani . . . and they wouldn’t be calling for an emergency meeting” if they didn’t want higher prices, he said.