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Strategies & Market Trends : MDA - Market Direction Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (44115)	3/25/2000 7:02:00 PM
From: Roebear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 99985

Haim, I'm wondering whose URL was more recent, yours or this one? 1-1.5 mbpd should be bullish as 2.3 is required. $25 is the price target. Demand also appears to be growing at least 1 mbpd each year. biz.yahoo.com FOCUS-OPEC homes in on 1-1.5 mbpd oil output rise (releads, updates throughout) By Karen Matusic VIENNA, March 25 (Reuters) - OPEC oil producers negotiating extra oil supplies are near a deal to lift crude output by between one to 1.5 million barrels daily, a senior Gulf official said on Saturday. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is set to seal the agreement at a meeting that starts here on Monday in a bid to ease high oil prices and prevent economic damage among major oil consuming nations. ``We definitely are near an agreement to add between one to 1.5 million barrels a day,' said the official, who is familiar with OPEC policy among Gulf producers. The official said a recent reversal in oil prices to $28 a barrel in the U.S., from a peak of $34 two weeks ago, and likely leakage over official quotas, could mean the final decision would come closer to a million bpd than 1.5 million. ``Closer to one million will be more reasonable to all producers,' he said. The incremental oil will come on top of official limits for 10 OPEC nations of 22.976 million bpd agreed last March, for an addition of about five percent. OPEC delegates said recent contacts between Gulf OPEC leaders and U.S. President Bill Clinton had settled any last minute reservations about the output hike. OPEC SEEN GATHERING AGAIN IN JUNE The Gulf official said the cartel was likely to agree to meet again in June to make a decision on whether additional volumes were needed to bring oil into the $20-$25 a barrel range that satisfies both Washington and OPEC. Big producers, including Saudi Arabia, are believed to have made known they would like a reversal of about 1.5 million bpd of the 4.316 million bpd of output curbs in place since last March. The limits expire at the end of this month. Iran, until recently averse to any output rise, now says it would accept an addition of up to one million bpd. ``We expect to have between 700,000 to one million barrels a day output increase,' a senior oil ministry official in Tehran said on Saturday. Only price hawks Algeria and Libya remain to be convinced that world petroleum inventories are low enough to warrant a supply increase. Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil said on Saturday that the perception of more oil to come had already had a damaging impact on prices. ``An additional crude oil offer of between 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and 1.4 million bpd on the top of quotas set in March, 1999, has already prompted prices to fall,' Algeria's APS reported him saying in Algiers. Worried about the impact on inflation, economic growth and politically-sensitive gasoline prices, the United States sees room for OPEC eventually to open up the taps by three million barrels daily on the 75 million bpd world market. But the Clinton administration is understood to be content with the step-by-step approach signalled by OPEC which would see more oil on the market later in the summer if prices do not cool in the next few months. IRAQ ALSO LIFTING EXPORTS Sanctions-bound Iraq, not a party to OPEC oil cuts, says it also is planning to raise exports in the next few weeks under its humanitarian exchange with the United Nations. Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Rasheed told Reuters in an interview on Saturday that a decision by the United Nations to release spare parts for Iraq's crumbling oil sector would allow Baghdad quickly to restore failing production. Rasheed, in Jordan on route to Vienna, said Iraq soon would lift oil production by 700,000 bpd to 3.1 million bpd. That would allow 2.4 million for export after domestic consumption -- a level it peaked at late last year before lack of parts hit Iraqi oilfields. Venezuelan Oil Minister Ali Rodriguez, already in Vienna preparing for the conference, said the extra Iraqi output would not necessarily have an impact on OPEC's negotiations. Related News Categories: US Market News Best Regards, Roebear