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Gold/Mining/Energy : Anyone following UTI Energy Corp.? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bert Klimer who wrote (828)	6/14/1998 2:32:00 PM
From: XOsDaWAY2GO	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1305

>>>OPEC announced that they are unlikely to announce cuts in production at their meeting on Tuesday. <<< What idiots. Barbara

To: Bert Klimer who wrote (828)	6/14/1998 5:28:00 PM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Respond to of 1305

All is not lost: DUBAI, June 14 (Reuters) - Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh finished a sweep of Gulf Arab states on Sunday with little to lift oil prices out of their doldrums when markets reopen on Monday. Zanganeh, whose country is the second largest producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), on Sunday completed visits to the United Arab Emirates and Oman after earlier meeting his counterparts in Kuwait and Qatar. Despite Zanganeh's whirlwind visit, key OPEC states Kuwait and UAE fell short of publicly pledging actual production cuts before a meeting of OPEC ministers on June 24 in Vienna. ''We must discuss this (the issue of cuts) in the next meeting in Vienna,'' Zanganeh told reporters. Oil markets have been looking for evidence of production cuts to boost oil prices which have fallen to their lowest level in real terms for 25 years on the back on brimming petroleum inventories and Asia's economic downturn. Earlier this month, the International Energy Agency said world oil demand should average 75 million bpd in 1998 while current output is running at about 76.6 million bpd. North Sea Brent crude futures for July delivery closed on Friday at $12.40, nearly $7 a barrel below last year's average. Kuwait Oil Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah on Saturday warned producers faced a ''true crisis'' that needed ''sacrifices.'' Kuwait has said it is looking at cutting output between 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 100,000 bpd. ''There is agreement between us and our friends in Iran that the oil market needs some kind of correction,'' UAE Oil Minister and OPEC president Obeid bin Saif al-Nasseri told reporters after meeting Zanganeh. ''Current prices are very low and there must be a response from the producers, whether from OPEC or outside OPEC, to correct the cause of prices,'' Nasseri said. UAE would announce the size of its cut at the Vienna meeting, the official WAM news agency reported. Zanganeh and his Omani opposite number Mohammad bin Hamad bin Seif al-Ramhi discussed ''the most recent developments in the world oil market, particularly concerning lowering oil output,'' the official Oman News Agency (ONA) reported. Zanganeh's trip to the Gulf followed the ''Amsterdam Pact'' of June 4 under which Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico agreed to cut output by a further 450,000 bpd and called for additional cuts to help firm prices. Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Naimi this month also visited the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman as well as Iran to try and drum up backing for the Amsterdam deal. Iran has pledged to cut output by 100,000 bpd from July 1 to support the deal, adding on to an earlier commitment made at OPEC's last meeting in March to cut by 140,000 bpd. Producers would have to cut their output by more than a million bpd to rescue prices, an Iranian newspaper said. ''The reduction of 500,000 bpd or even a million bpd will not bring the desired results. The production cut should be enough to shake the oil market,'' the English-language Tehran Times said on Sunday. Key producers UAE and Kuwait have said they support the Amsterdam deal as a way to lift prices but both have fallen short of promising additional output cuts. Both countries cut output under the so-called ''Riyadh Pact'' of March 22 under which OPEC and non-OPEC producers moved to remove some 1.5 million bpd from the world market. Kuwait and UAE oil ministers will meet their Saudi, Omani, Bahraini and Qatari counterparts in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh on June 16. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------