Oil cuts to stay with $16-19 Brent - Venezuela
biz.yahoo.com
Monday October 5, 6:45 pm Eastern Time
CARACAS, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Current pledged cuts in world oil output of about three million barrels per day will be maintained for the whole of 1999 if the price of Brent crude oil climbs to $16-$19 per barrel, Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister Erwin Arrieta said on Monday.
''We think that would be the level at which these cuts would be sustained, not additional ones, but those that have already been undertaken,'' Arrieta told journalists in the Miraflores presidential palace, in response to a question specifying the $16-$19 range for Brent crude oil.
It was Arrieta's first public appearance since he agreed with his Mexican and Saudi Arabian counterparts last Friday to recommend an extension of the worldwide output cuts to the end of 1999. The cuts had been due to expire at the end of June.
''In any case, the fundamental objective is not to go for more cuts, but to create conditions for more spaces in the market,'' Arrieta added.
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, in an interview published in a Saudi newspaper on Saturday, said members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had two goals -- maintaining oil prices between $15 and $20 a barrel and extending their market share.
The three ministers met in Cancun, Mexico, against a backdrop of a recovery in oil prices from their summer lows, when Brent touched a low of $10.77 a barrel, its lowest real price since the early to mid-1970s.
On Monday, Brent Blend crude oil was trading in Europe at $14.10 per barrel. |
