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To: JHR who wrote (20951)	4/30/1998 10:50:00 PM
From: pz	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - World oil prices drifted aimlessly on Thursday, seeking direction in a market bereft of news. "The market has been seesawing all day," said one dealer. "It started off in the black then it slipped back into the red. Now we're in the black again...It's an unstable market." World benchmark North Sea Brent blend was trading in the red at 1612 GMT, down seven cents at $14.18, just off the day's low of $14.15. Calls by OPEC members this week for world producers to make further reductions in output of up to one million barrels of oil per day appeared to have been factored into a market unwilling to show bullishness in the absence of substantiated evidence. "We now need to see the cuts actually happening. I think it (OPEC output cut calls) are pretty much factored into the market by now. We were looking for an excuse to move higher and the news gave us that chance," said one trader on the London futures market. OPEC technical experts have scheduled to meet in Vienna on June 15 to discuss the market situation ahead of the producer group's summer ministerial conference nine days later. The Economic Commission Board, which draws representatives from each of OPEC's 11 member countries, recommends future action to OPEC ministers based on world supply, demand and output figures. U.S. gasoline futures, which brought down the crude complex on Wednesday, were still in the red. Little decisive price moves were expected with holidays in Europe over the next two days. "It's still a case of wait and see on this market," a Brent broker said. "Europe is shut tomorrow and it's a holiday here on Monday. It's looking like a quiet lead into the weekend." Some market watchers were awaiting Iraqi reaction to the continuation of U.N. sanctions against Baghdad and anticipated some trouble that could bolster oil prices. "The Iraqis have been making some unhappy noises recently. If there is a standoff like the last one over the inspection of sites, then we're probably looking at a firmer market," said one trader. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz on Wednesday accused U.N. arms inspectors of treating President Saddam Hussein's compounds as if they were "normal sites," allowing themselves the right of access to them as "an absolute right to be exercised without any regard" for special procedures agreed with Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In a letter to Annan, the Iraqi minister did not threaten to cut off access to the eight presidential sites that nearly caused a bombing raid by the United States and Britain, but appeared to be building a case to limit the visits. Aziz was responding to a report last week by Charles Duelfer, the deputy chairman of the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) searching for weapons of mass destruction, who led the inspectors on their initial visit to the compounds in late March and April. Prices in dollars per barrel: April 30 April 29 (1612 gmt) (close) IPE June Brent 14.18 14.25 NYMEX June light crude 15.15 15.32