I don't know about you folks, but it sure sounds that from this story that the OPEC PR is being handled very well this time around.
Energy News
Fri, 12 Mar 1999, 2:25pm EST
Mexico's Output Cuts to Be Based on Exports, Not Production
The Hague, March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's contribution to
crude oil output cuts agreed to by 13 countries will be based on
export levels, rather than production, Mexico's deputy energy
minister said.
Mexico, which isn't a member of the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries, will 10 OPEC members and other non-
members Norway and Oman in cutting world supply by more than 2
million barrels a day in an attempt to boost oil prices that fell
to a 12-year low in December.
''Mexico's cuts will be announced later on but it is part of
the agreement, which is expected to be more than 2 million
barrels a day, and the basis of our cuts is on exports,''
Mexico's deputy energy minister Jorge Chavez said in a telephone
interview from The Hague, where he attended a meeting of oil
ministers from five countries at which the cuts were announced.
While most of the supply cuts pledged last year by world
producers were based on production levels, Mexico measured its
cuts based on export levels.
Adrian Lajous, head of state-run oil company Petroleos
Mexicanos, who led the Mexican delegation to The Hague with
Chavez, said the Amsterdam agreement would probably help boost
oil prices to $18 a barrel by the end of the year. Lajous said
non-OPEC countries promised ''significant'' cuts to help achieve
the total.
April crude oil futures in New York recently were up 37
cents at $14.68 a barrel.
Details of the cuts will be announced when OPEC meets March
23 in Vienna, oil ministers said. OPEC's failure to approve new
production cuts during its last meeting in November contributed
to the plunge of New York crude prices to a 12-year low of $10.35
a barrel the following month.
Oil officials arrived in the Netherlands eager to reach an
agreement with a minimum of conflict, compared with the November
OPEC meeting, Chavez said.
''One of the beauties of this meeting was the voluntary
contributions made by the countries that were there, especially
Iran, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia,'' he said. ''The mood, compared
with other meetings was very good.''
After the November OPEC meeting, ''the market punished
(producers) severely, this time the market will make up for
that,'' he said.
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