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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: oilbabe who wrote (50095)	8/31/1999 7:40:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

OPEC Expects August Compliance With Cuts Near 100%, Iran Says Tehran, Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will this month achieve almost full compliance with pledged output cuts designed to limit supply, end an oil glut and boost prices, Persian Gulf oil officials said. ``Since April we have witnessed a growing rate of compliance. It has been an upward trend all the way -- 93 percent last month, and we expect it to be higher this month,' said Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, a senior adviser to Iran's oil minister and the country's OPEC governor. OPEC made 95 percent of its promised cuts in July, according to a Bloomberg survey of 10 analysts and traders, up from 94 percent in June, 90 percent in May, and 83 percent in April. Benchmark Brent crude oil has soared to $20.76 a barrel from less than $10 in December as 10 members of OPEC and four other nations agreed to cut world oil output by a total of about 7 percent for one year from April 1. ``We should not make any changes to output policy until after the winter when inventory levels will have been drawn down to acceptable levels, and we reach our target price of a $21 average for an OPEC barrel for the year. Prices are still only about $15 a barrel year-to-date,' Ardebeli said. The OPEC benchmark barrel consists of an imaginary blend of 7 different types of oil from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America, and usually is priced about 30 cents below Brent. Global oil inventories, now estimated at 85 days of use, are falling by 2.1 million barrels a day, according to the London- based Centre for Global Energy Studies. Without OPEC's cutback of more than 4 million barrels a day, supplies would be rising. ``We see no reason not to have total compliance with the agreement in August,' said a United Arab Emirates oil ministry spokesman. ``The average price is still less than our target, and the level of stocks are still too high,' he said. Ten OPEC members, excluding Iraq, pledged during the past year to cut oil output by a combined 4.3 million barrels a day from February 1998 levels in order to boost prices that hit a 12- year low in December. bloomberg.com