On Friday, the front-month contract on Brent (ICE) closed barely changed just shy above 107 USD per barrel (USD/bbl) level. A better than expected outcome of US nonfarm payrolls for November provided just a short-term support for the price of oil. Ahead of the OPEC meeting (scheduled for Wednesday), Iraqi Oil Minister Luabi said that his country would probably produce 3.7 million barrels of oil per day (mbpd) on average in 2013. Overall exports could reach 2.9 million barrels per day (by about 0.3 mbpd more than last month). Let us recall that rising Iraqi oil production has been one of factors that have helped to calm the oil market after the international sanctions hit Iranian crude exports earlier this year. Base Metals Today in early trading, base metals extend Friday’s gains; three-month copper (LME) is trading for 8132 USD per ton (USD/t) which is the highest price since mid October while three-month aluminium breaches back above 2100 USD/t level. Base metals draw support from slightly better than expected China’s manufacturing and retail sales data for November. Moreover, the copper price has been supported by the increase in copper imports. On the other hand, aluminium imports fell to the lowest level in thirteen months.