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To: ItsAllCyclical who wrote (62180)	3/15/2000 11:18:00 AM
From: Now Shes Blonde	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Oil sinks on conflicting supply data By Myra P. Saefong, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 10:21 AM ET Mar 15, 2000 Futures Movers Agriculture Outlook NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Oil futures fell sharply Wednesday on conflicting petroleum supply data and increasing beliefs that OPEC will decide to raise production at its meeting later this month. Today?s reports on U.S. petroleum stocks "are bullish to neutral for crude prices and distillate prices," as the American Petroleum Institute and the Department of Energy "present conflicting pictures of crude and distillate stocks," Mark Bock, a senior economist at the Dismal Scientist said. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, April crude fell 76 cents to $30.93 a barrel. "OPEC would like to see the price of crude at about $25 per barrel," Bock said. April heating oil slipped 1.88 cents to 71.80 cents a gallon and April unleaded gasoline lost 2.49 cents to 94.30 a gallon. See latest commodity prices. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Oil Service Stocks Index was down 2.7 percent to 101.63, with shares of Tidewater Inc. (TDW: news, msgs) down 1 1/8 to 27 3/4 in recent trading. "Recent news from OPEC suggests that OPEC will definitely increase their output when the current cutback agreement ends on March 31," he said. OPEC will make its decision on output at its March 27 summit. However, "the real question is whether the cartel will increase output enough to allow inventories to be built up to more comfortable levels," he said. If production levels reach the 2.3 million barrel increase the International Energy Agency estimated is necessary to replenish global supplies, "prices will decline well below current levels." Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute posted a 3.6 million barrel drop in crude oil supplies, bigger than the 2 million to 3 million barrel decline the market was looking for, according to a Bridge News survey of analysts. Total supplies, as of March 10, stand at 287.2 million barrels. Data on from the Department of Energy early Wednesday provided a conflicting picture on crude inventories, however. The Energy Department reported a 400,000 barrel increase in crude supplies. Gasoline supplies fell 2 million barrels, the API said, but fell 2.2 million barrels, according to the Energy Department. Analysts were expecting supplies to be down 1.5 million to 2.5 million barrels, according to the Bridge survey, as demand was expected to show a seasonal increase. Still, gasoline stocks of 198.6 million barrels at the end of February were 13 percent lower than the year-ago period, according to a monthly statistical report from the API. Supplies at the end of February were "the lowest for this time of year in at least 30 years," the report said. The API's measure of distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell 2.4 million barrels last week, compared to expectations for a rise between 500,000 barrels to 1.5 million barrels. The Energy Department said supplies remained unchanged from the prior period. Refinery production rates increased by 1.3 percent from the prior week's 87.9 percent, the API reported. Analysts were expecting a rise between 0.5 percent and 1 percent. Venezuela pushes for small increase Meanwhile, Venezuelan Oil Minister Ali Rodriguez said Wednesday that OPEC was already producing one million barrels per day over quota and that OPEC should exercise caution in raising output by only making a small increase, according to Victor Yu, vice president of Chicago-based brokerage, Refco Inc. "Algerian, Libyan, and Iranian oil ministers are expected to meet on March 26th to 'solidify' their position ahead of the full OPEC meeting," Yu said. In other energy news, April natural gas fell 2.4 cents to $2.785 per million British thermal units ahead of its own update on U.S. supplies from the American Gas Association which will be released just prior to the market's close. Analysts expect the AGA to report a drop of 25 billion to 35 billion cubic feet in last week's natural gas supplies, according to a survey conducted by Bridge News.