Oil recovered late last week on resurging strength in the US gasoline market, after losing nearly $3.00 a barrel the week before.But the path ahead for oil was still unclear, dealers said.Many are waiting for fresh news from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which wields significant influence as it controls most world oil exports.OPEC members are scheduled to meet again in early September.

Over the weekend, OPEC president Ali Rodriguez was reported to say he feared an oil price crash on oversupply. Rodriguez, who is also the Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister, said in an interview with the local El Nacional newspaper that some sources now put the cartel's output at more than 700,000 barrels a day above its agreed limits.

He did not identify the sources."As a consequence of the oversupply of sour crudes, prices could fall by December or in the last quarter of the year when demand and prices normally rise," Rodriguez said.Through two rounds of hikes this year, ten OPEC members had agreed to raise its supply ceiling to 25.4 million barrels daily.

An eleventh OPEC member Iraq is excluded as it is still subject to Gulf War sanctions. Separately, an OPEC source told Reuters on Sunday that Rodriguez had also written a letter to the group's secretary general Rilwanu Lukman expressing oversupply concerns.The letter has requested OPEC members to scrap earlier plans for a third round of output hikes, the source said.Oil prices have generally declined since July 19, when Saudi Arabia - the world's biggest oil exporter and OPEC kingpin - was first seen quietly leaking extra supply.

Industry sources said Saudi has hiked output by 250,000 bpd in July and will do the same in August, despite OPEC's decision to the contrary.Kuwait, another OPEC member with enough reserves to pump more oil, has insisted that it will not act unilaterally.On Friday, a Kuwaiti spokesman said it had requested Lukman to make an official statement to ask members not to hike output as prices fall.