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

To: PuddleGlum who wrote (15794)	3/21/1998 1:41:00 PM
From: pz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Saturday March 21, 12:20 pm Eastern Time OPEC official hopeful non-OPEC will cut output MONACO, March 21 (Reuters) - The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is hopeful oil producers not within the cartel may cut back production to help shore up sagging crude prices, an OPEC official said on Saturday. ''We are very hopeful at this stage that non-OPEC is willing to take on some of the burden,'' Deyaa Alkhateeb of OPEC's research department told the Monaco Energy Summit. Alkhateeb said it was clear from statements by leading member states that they did not wish OPEC to act alone in cutting production, which is the key to rescuing oil prices that have sunk some 40 percent since last November. Venezuela has said OPEC must persuade non-OPEC states, who account for two-thirds of world production of some 75 million barrels per day, to voluntarily restrain their output. Non-OPEC Gulf producer Oman has taken the lead in making informal contacts between the 11-nation cartel and other large producers, said Alkhateeb. The opinions of Norway and Mexico had been sought, he added. OPEC states are also engaged in behind the scenes consultations to devise a rescue strategy and to help repair an open rift between leading members Saudi Arabia and Venezuela over responsibility for the price fall. The March 30 meeting of OPEC's market monitoring committee will be the next formal opportunity to consider action to soak up the estimated 1.5 million barrels per day of extra supply on the market. ''These prices are very dangerous, we can't live with them for long,'' said Alkhateeb, adding that he was confident measures would be taken. ''There will be a solution. It's just a question of whether it is in a day, a week or a month.'' But he acknowledged there was no precedent for an organised throttling back of non-OPEC output, nor any monitoring mechanisms to ensure commitments of restraint were adhered to.