The US light crude futures were last traded at 0745 GMT at $23.79 per barrel, up 34 cents from the New York close on Friday.

A report on Friday showed that in the past two weeks speculators have reduced their long positions -- or contracts to buy oil futures -- by almost half.

And with oil once again on a rising trend, traders said they expected the speculators, such as investment or mutual funds, to start buying again.

"It's going to move the market a couple of dollars (higher) when they get back in," one broker said. She declined to be identified.

The US Light crude futures, trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) in New York, rose 63 cents, or 2.8 per cent, last week, as Opec'S big guns bolstered prices by saying production cuts could be extended beyond the end of March.

Traders on Friday said the 1999 oil price rally, which has seen prices more than double, was back on track.

NYMEX crude futures rallied from a 12-year low of $10.35 last December to a 32-month peak of $25.12 on September 29.

Traders said much of the rally was the result of funds investing in the market because of Opec and non-Opec producers pledging to cut production by more than five million barrels per day.

Traders said now that Opec is considering extending the cut, oil prices could rally once again and surpass the $25.12 high.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Friday in a regular report that non-commercial long positions -- which usually refers to speculators -- totalled 43,485,000 barrels on October 19.

This compared with 81,380,000 barrels just two weeks earlier, a decline of 47 per cent.