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Updated - 31/03/1998
OPEC announces temporary crude oil production cutbacks
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Sydney - Tuesday - March 31: The OPEC ministerial meeting in
Vienna has approved temporary production cutbacks totalling 1.245
million barrels per day amongst its member nations.
A communique issued after the meeting stated the cutbacks will
come into effect from April 1 and will last until the end of the year.
The reductions will apply to output figures for February, agreed
to from various sources as a reference point, as follows (in barrels per
day):
REFERENCE CURRENT
CUTBACK POINT OPEC QUOTA
Algeria 50,000 868,000 908,000
Indonesia 70,000 1,380,000 1,456,000
Iran 140,000 3,623,000 3,942,000
Kuwait 125,000 2,205,000 2,190,000
Libya 80,000 1,453,000 1,522,000
Nigeria 125,000 2,258,000 2,042,000
Qatar 30,000 700,000 414,000
Saudi Arabia 300,000 8,748,000 8,761,000
UAE 125,000 2,382,000 2,366,000
Venezuela 200,000 3,370,000 2,583,000
Most of the major non-OPEC producers have also committed to
production cuts as follows (in barrels per day, from April 1 unless
stated otherwise):
Norway 100,000 (from April 12)
Mexico 100,000
Egypt 30,000 (from July 1)
Oman 30,000
Yemen 7,600-11,400
The total cutbacks pledged from both OPEC and non-OPEC producers
comes to about 1.514 million bpd, still short of the 1.6-2.0 million bpd
target sought by Saudia Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico when they announced
a pact on March 22 to reduce output and pushed for other producers to
join them.
Russia has not announced any plans to cut its production, but
has invited OPEC Secretary General Rilwanu Lukman to Moscow to discuss
world oil markets.
After the OPEC communique was issued, crude oil prices in the
New York Mercantile Exchange's overnight ACCESS computerised session
declined to as low as $16.05, down 16c from Monday's close.
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