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

To: SJS who wrote (17644)	4/2/1998 9:29:00 AM
From: Lucretius	Respond to of 95453

oil is going higher, too many keep saying it's over: Thursday April 2, 5:38 am Eastern Time FOCUS-Oil prices rebound after initial OPEC doubts LONDON, April 2 (Reuters) - World oil prices firmed on Thursday in a corrective bounce after sharp losses in the immediate aftermath of OPEC's deal to cut output. But traders said turbulence, in the wake of a pact to trim more than two percent of world supply, was beginning to subside as the market established a new trading range. World benchmark, Brent crude oil, was up 32 cents a barrel at $14.25 at 1029 GMT but still floundering more than a dollar below levels seen before the OPEC cuts. ''I think we are now just settling into a new range,'' said Scott Carter, senior oil trader at Tosco Petroleum in London. An emergency Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting that ended early on Tuesday approved a 1.245 million barrels per day (bpd) cartel contribution to a two percent cut in global output. Other cuts will come from non-OPEC Norway, Mexico, Egypt, Oman and Yemen, which have pledged to trim 270,000 bpd for a total of 1.5 million bpd in overall promised reductions. The objective is to rescue oil from a 40 percent price slide that took Brent to a nine-year low of $11.90 a barrel recently. The cuts achieved their goal in the days after they were first mapped out at a secret meeting in Riyadh between Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico, boosting levels by some $3. But scepticism that the cuts would not be enough to mop up glutted oil markets persist, traders said. After their meeting OPEC ministers pleaded for patience, arguing that prices would rise once production restraint worked its way into crude shipping schedules. ''The market should judge the OPEC decision in two months,'' said Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi earlier this week. Warm winter weather, growing Iraqi oil exports and a mistimed OPEC move in November to hike output by 10 percent were responsible for the slide from last year's average Brent price of $19.32 a barrel. Dresdner Kleinwort Benson said in market comments titled ''OPEC: Back from the precipice'' said the attempt to prop up prices ''has come not a moment too soon.'' ''Without such measures prices could well have entered single digits by mid-year. However, oil prices are unlikely to return to 1997 levels.'' Rising Iraqi exports will counteract the impact of the cuts after Baghdad won U.N. approval to double existing sales. But to boost exports Iraqi says it needs $300 million for spare parts to repair its ailing oil industry. Prices in dollars per barrel: April 2 April 1 (1029 GMT) (close) IPE May Brent 14.25 13.93 NYMEX May light crude 15.66 15.54 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------