Analysts: OPEC decision won't lower prices

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- As members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ponder whether to boost production at their meeting today, analysts said their decision -- whatever it'll be -- won't succeed in lowering high oil prices.
Elsewhere, traders were unnerved by the ferocity of Hurricane Ivan heading toward the oil and natural gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, and an audacious attack by insurgents on a crucial oil pipeline juncture in Iraq that showed the vulnerability of the country's oil production.
"You're going to keep prices in the high 30s and the low 40s for the foreseeable future," said Peter Gignoux, a senior oil adviser to GDP Associates in New York. "Oil has been in play ... and it's going to get the headlines for some time."
OPEC members themselves were divided about how best to keep a lid on oil prices, which have been hovering around $40 to $43 this year.
OPEC members will consider the idea of raising output by 2 million barrels a day, or more than 7 percent, when they meet today.