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

To: RealMuLan who wrote (18305)	4/7/1998 5:31:00 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

FOCUS-No quick respite for OPEC from oil price pain Tuesday April 7, 3:03 pm Eastern Time LONDON, April 7 (Reuters) - OPEC producers faced further disappointment on Tuesday as oil markets took another bite from price gains established in the wake of the Riyadh accord. Benchmark Brent blend for May loading lost 17 cents a barrel by 1600 GMT to trade at $13.70 a barrel. The crude has slumped quickly from a recent peak of $15.82 in the week after the end-March announcement that producers were clubbing together in a bid to erase unwanted supplies from a glutted market. Producers have seen Brent average a disastrous $4.50 a barrel less so far this year than in 1997, cutting export earnings for OPEC member countries by some $8 billion in the first quarter of 1998. Dealers blame uncertainty over the likely impact of the oil producers' pact which on paper should extract 1.5 million barrels a day (bpd) from the 75 million barrel daily world market. Traders have still to see firm evidence of the reductions which came into effect on April 1, led by a 1.25 million bpd reduction by Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members. ''There's still some suspicion about exactly how it will be done by individual countries and for the time being storage tanks remain bung full,'' said a trader in London. ''The market is pretty weak because basically, there is too much crude out there and this is creating pressure,'' said Jim Ritterbusch at Chicago's Sweeney Oil. Oil exporters outside the cartel have pledged an additional 400,000 bpd of cuts led by Mexico and Norway and helped by surprise cooperation from China announced on Friday. Signs that competition among the world's biggest oil exporters remains tough came on Tuesday from Saudi Arabia's announcement of another round of price cuts to its key U.S. customers. The battle for market share between Saudi Arabia and its Latin American rivals has taken Saudi discounts versus benchmark grades to record levels for U.S. refinery buyers. Rising UN-monitored Iraqi oil exports also are counteracting the impact of the Riyadh cuts. Baghdad exported an average of 1.31 million bpd in March, up 200,000 bpd from February. Shippers say April exports are expected to top 1.4 million bpd for record post-Gulf War supplies from the sanctions-bound Middle East producer. Prices in dollars per barrel: April 7 April 6 (1600 GMT) (close) IPE May Brent 13.70 14.87 NYMEX May light crude 15.27 15.45