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To: Roebear who wrote (61748)	3/7/2000 8:56:00 PM
From: JungleInvestor	Respond to of 95453

Clinton says high oil price bad for everyone (bet he's especially thinking of Gore): Clinton: OPEC $34 Oil Bad for Everyone March 7, 2000 6:55 PM EST By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil prices galloped above $34 a barrel on Tuesday, and President Clinton warned the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that their members could face sliding demand and eventually less revenue if prices remained this high. The administration also said it was stepping up energy diplomacy with hastily arranged sessions with OPEC members Venezuela and Qatar. U.S. crude futures closed sharply higher in fever-pitch trading on Tuesday, leaping $1.95 per barrel -- or five percent -- to close at $34.13 a barrel. The price was the highest since November 1990, three months after Iraq invaded Kuwait. OPEC is firmly in the driver's seat as members prepare for a March 27 meeting to set production for the coming six months amid dwindling world inventories and soaring crude oil prices. American lawmakers are clamoring for the administration to cut off foreign aid, cancel arms sales and take other tough action against OPEC to prod the cartel into pumping more oil. But the White House has repeatedly said it prefers to first try diplomatic overtures. ``Sure, I want oil prices to go down some, but the producing countries should want them to go down some, too,' Clinton told reporters at a White House news conference. ``What we want are stable oil prices that aren't too high.' Depleted oil stocks around the globe, caused mainly by cuts in OPEC production, have left consuming nations on the short end of a supply squeeze at a time of rising demand. Clinton said oil producing countries must understand that high prices will hurt them in the longer-term. Two outcomes are likely, he said. ``You will either have a big drop in demand from (high) oil prices...and it will cut the revenues of the oil-producing countries below where they would have been if they'd maintained stable prices at a lower level,' Clinton said. ``Or, you will have a lot of non-OPEC members, who aren't subject to their agreement, start increasing their production, taking market share away from them,' he said. The oil price spike also prompted Federal Reserve Bank officials to express concern about economic growth. Fed Governor Edward Gramlich told reporters the bank was 'obviously concerned' about higher oil prices even though oil plays less of a role in the U.S. economy than it did during the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s. Robert McTeer, who heads the Fed bank in Dallas, said U.S. inflation would not turn lower until oil prices eased. Meanwhile, U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was to meet on Tuesday with the oil minister of Qatar, a tiny Gulf producer that is an OPEC member and a traditional U.S. ally. Richardson also made a secret trip to Miami on Monday for a quickly-arranged meeting with the Venezuelan energy minister. Qatari oil minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiya said OPEC members wanted to find a way to stabilize world energy prices as much as consuming nations do. ``We are all interested in market stability,' al-Attiya told Reuters in an interview in Washington. Tiny Qatar pumps less than 1 million barrels per day of oil. The OPEC meeting could last much longer than the cartel's typical three-day session, he said, because all price and supply issues will be on the table for discussion. Richardson expressed confidence that prices would stabilize soon after OPEC meets. ``After OPEC has increased production -- and we're working very hard that that production be increased sizably and in a timely fashion -- I think you will see a stability in gasoline prices,' he told the NBC's Today Show. But oil traders and analysts are less certain about a sizable increase in OPEC output, pointing to a deep rift between so-called price hawks and other members who favor pumping more oil to calm the market. Iran, which wants to see oil prices remain high, is scheduled to meet with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and non-OPEC member Mexico have said they back a supply increase beginning on April 1. Clinton is also still mulling the release of oil from the nation's emergency stockpile if OPEC refuses to pump more oil. On Monday, the U.S. government said retail gasoline prices could soar to $1.80 a gallon this summer if OPEC agreed to increase production by only a modest amount. That would be more than 65 cents a gallon higher than last summer. World crude oil prices could rocket above $35 a barrel within a few weeks if OPEC delays any output hike until the fourth quarter, according to the new U.S. government forecast.

To: Roebear who wrote (61748)	3/7/2000 9:02:00 PM
From: JungleInvestor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

Following is from the Greywolf site (BTW, the date is not July but March 7): 07/03 THE USA - BACKTRACKING? The US is working with oil-producing countries to help achieve "stable oil prices that aren't too high," President Bill Clinton said today. In a press briefing at the White House, Clinton said that goal was what the US wanted and was "what the oil-producing countries should want." This sounds a hell of lot like a back-off. 07/03 IRAN - REDUCTIONS PAST Q2 The Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh is set to tour the middle east on the weekend with the intent to rally support for keeping the reductions past Q2. Countrys on the visit list are Oman and the UAE. This according to diplomatic sources in the gulf region. Well this is price positive! 07/03 OIL - BRENT ABOVE $30 IN LONDON A few factors today that are driving the price are; NIGERIA - there is an oil strike ongoing in the country. Royal Dutch/Shell's crude loadings from its Bonny and Forcados terminals in Nigeria remain suspended, but force majeure has not yet been declared on loadings from the terminals. Oil is coming into the terminals but none is going out. This could be a long strike, yet again. NORWAY - loading has been disrupted due to bad weather in the region. yet it has by late Tuesday come back on line due to better weather.