Sunday March 14 12:45 AM ET
Oil Producers Said Nearing Equal Cuts
MAIQUETIA (Reuters) - Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister Ali Rodriguez said Saturday
all oil producers are coming close to cutting the same percentage of their output to get prices up.
Talking to Reuters at Simon Bolivar Airport on his way back from the Netherlands, where key
petroleum states agreed on a 2 million barrel per day (bpd) reduction, he said participants had
agreed not to disclose details of each country's contribution until the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries meets in 10 days.
''In general, all (producers) are getting close to cutting the same percentage,'' he said.
''At the moment some are contributing a little more than others,'' he added.
Venezuela had gone to the talks determined not to cut any more of its own output until other
producers matched its 15 percent cut. Most Gulf states only agreed to cut 8-9 percent of their
output in two rounds of supply agreements last year.
Asked if Venezuela had changed its position, Rodriguez said: ''After the OPEC meeting the
changes will become clear. They are not very drastic, but they are important.''
He confirmed that Venezuela, which for years had flouted its OPEC agreements, was now in full
compliance with its 525,000 bpd cut, which puts crude oil flow at 2.845 million bpd.
In the past, Venezuelan noncompliance was a key obstacle to the cartel agreeing further cuts
because it encouraged other countries to do the same.
Countries present at the Hague talks were OPEC members Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran and
Algeria and non-OPEC member Mexico.
''The agreement was not to give figures until the (OPEC) meeting because there was only a part
of OPEC, not all OPEC,'' Rodriguez added.
OPEC also includes Libya, Kuwait, UAE, Iraq, Indonesia, Nigeria and Qatar.
Oil prices have risen more than $2 per barrel, or about 20 percent, since the beginning of March
on signs that more supply cuts were on the cards, but markets reacted cautiously to news Friday
that there were no individual quotas agreed.
This still leaves plenty for OPEC to do at the Vienna meeting on March 23.
dailynews.yahoo.com
Charles |
