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To: TCavallin who wrote (16024)	3/23/1998 12:56:00 AM
From: Czechsinthemail	Respond to of 95453

3/22/98 Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Mexico To Cut Oil Supplies To Boost Price NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico said Sunday they would work with members and nonmembers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to reduce oil output by up to two million barrels a day in a joint effort to stabilize the market and boost prices. The announcement was made in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, following a weekend meeting of oil ministers of the three countries. Saudi Arabia said it plans to reduce its supply by 300,000 barrels per day. Mexico, an oil producer but not a member of OPEC, said it would cut its oil exports by 100,000 barrels per day, a 5.4% reduction. Its daily exports for the rest of 1998 will average 1.74 million barrels, the Energy Ministry said. Venezuela said it would reduce production by 200,000 barrels per day. Venezuela's quota is 2.583 million barrels a day, but it is estimated to be actually pumping 3.3 million barrels a day. The supply reductions are to continue until the end of the year. The final amounts are to be announced in the next few days after talks with other producers are concluded. Commitments already have been received from oil-producing countries to withdraw about 1.1 million barrels per day effective April 1, according to a statement issued by the three countries. Oil prices have fallen nearly 40% - and hit nine-year lows last week - since OPEC met in late November in Jakarta and boosted its output ceiling by 10% to 27.5 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia, which had pushed for the increase, has boosted its output to near its new 8.76 million barrel-per-day quota. Meanwhile, in remarks published in the London Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat Sunday, Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rasheed said Iraq believes the world's oil-producing nations could collaborate to arrest the fall in oil prices. "I think there is a possibility of a collective cooperation, which is the only solution, and we still believe that we are able to control the situation and get oil prices back to a reasonable level," Rasheed told Al-Hayat. The minister said the price situation required "a collective measure not only by members of (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), but from countries outside the group." Under the oil-for-food program, the U.N. allows Iraq to bypass trade sanctions and sell limited amounts of oil in six-month periods. A new six-month plan boosts the amount of oil that Iraq can export to $5.2 billion. But Iraq says that after two wars and eight years of economic sanctions its oil industry may be able to produce only $4 billion of oil. Rasheed also said Iraq is ready to resume oil exports through the Iraqi-Syrian pipeline, as soon as Damascus approves. "We would certainly welcome this, but the whole thing is entirely up to the Syrian leadership," he said. The pipeline was closed after Damascus decided to support Tehran in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. But Syria and Iran have recently improved ties and reopened their border.