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

To: Ms. X who wrote (20727)	4/28/1998 8:41:00 PM
From: pz	Respond to of 95453

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - Oil markets crept higher on Tuesday, extending a gentle rally triggered by OPEC hints of further output cuts. Benchmark Brent blend was trading at $14.34 a barrel by 1620 GMT, up 13 cents a barrel as traders slowly gained confidence in producers' resolve to cut back output. Algerian Oil Minister Youssef Yousfi told a conference in London that the cuts agreed recently by OPEC and non-OPEC producers were not enough to lift prices and more were needed. "The output cut was not sufficient. Definitely future actions are necessary for the short-term and particularly for the next six months," Yousfi said, echoing recent remarks by other OPEC ministers in recent days. The market got a further lift on Tuesday after a UN sanctions review on Iraq give few signs that the seven-and-a-half- year trade embargo would end any time soon. The fresh gains came despite comments from Venezuelan Oil Minister Erwin Arrieta clarifying that additional OPEC production cuts were still some way off. Arrieta's Monday call for a further 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production cuts - on top of some 1.5 million bpd already pledged by OPEC and non-OPEC producers - triggered the initial rally which sent Brent prices above $14. OPEC oil ministers from the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait have all signalled that further production cuts could be on the agenda. And an adviser to the Indonesian oil minister on Tuesday backed the calls for further cuts, despite his country's economic woes. Further bullish signs came as oil experts said that Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries producers were mostly abiding by their promises to curb output. Supply from the 10 OPEC members that signed up to reductions at an end-March emergency meeting has fallen a full million barrels a day (bpd) from February's benchmark for the cuts, industry monitors and officials said. "It's difficult to say for sure on the basis of two weeks data but the numbers I've seen so far indicate that OPEC is on the way to coming through as promised," said an economist with one oil major. Monitors said Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and Nigeria have led the way in reducing output to pledged levels. But they cautioned that the full impact of the reductions won't be clear for a few weeks yet. And the picture is complicated by Iraq, not included in OPEC's agreement. Extra UN-monitored exports have added 350,000 bpd to Iraqi supplies since February. The oil-for-food exports are the only exception to the international embargo retained by the UN Security Council late on Monday in the first review for nearly a year. But the decision to maintain sanctions was partly offset by the first U.S. acknowledgement that Iraq had made progress on shedding its nuclear weapons capability - part of the programme of weapons elimination Iraq needs to end the embargo. China urged the Security Council to "gradually ease sanctions" on Iraq, while France called on the United Nations to make "a political gesture," in noting that Iraq has dismantled its nuclear arsenal. Prices in dollars per barrel: April 28 April 27 (1720 GMT) (close) IPE June Brent 14.34 14.21 NYMEX June light crude 15.47 15.32