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

To: kormac who wrote (62001)	3/12/2000 12:58:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Iran Denies Agreement on Oil Production Hike TEHRAN, Mar 11 (XINHUA) - Iran has denied reports that Iran has reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia to increase oil outputs to hold rising prices, local daily Tehran Times reported on Saturday. The false reports on Iran's acceptance of oil production increase is nothing but personal interpretations made by news agencies, the daily quoted Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, senior advisor of the Oil Ministry, as saying. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also confirmed that "there has been no change in Iran's stance on the issue and increase in oil production is not the policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh and his Saudi counterpart Ali Ibn Ibrahim Al-Naimi on Wednesday reached an agreement on an agreement on "adequate and timely" oil supply. Issuing a statement following their talks in Riyadh, the two ministers said that oil producers should provide "adequate and timely oil supplies" to balance the market in order to reach sustainable price levels conductive to world economic growth and market stability. Oil prices dropped slightly soon after the statement was released, which was seen as a change in Iran's stance from its previous opposition to an increase in oil production ceiling in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Western consuming countries, primarily the U.S., have urged oil- exporting countries to raise production in the second quarter of the year to pull down the rising oil prices since OPEC members decided to cut down their outputs last spring. Iran has been a main opponent of an immediate supply increase, a move advocated by OPEC's Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and non-OPEC Mexico. Iranian Oil Ministry claimed on Monday that the demand for crude oil has started to drop by 3 million barrels per day (bpd) for the second quarter of the year. Referring to the statement, Ardebili said what Iran meant by this statement was the sufficient production of oil aimed at market stabilization. Apart from this principal, Iran has not agreed to any increase or decrease in oil production and any decision about this matter would be left to the OPEC meeting in Vienna on March 27, the official said. He stressed that Iran has not issued any statement about increase or decrease of oil production, adding that the joint statement issued with Saudi Arabia has only emphasized the need for sufficient and timely supply of oil. Iran is the second biggest OPEC producer with a quota at 3.6 million bpd and is currently producing about 3.3 million bpd after OPEC decided last year to cut down outputs aiming at raising oil prices. Iran's producing capacity was announced at 4 million bpd, fearing to lose its current share in the OPEC when the 12-nation oil-producing block raised production ceiling.