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

To: XOsDaWAY2GO who wrote (24592)	6/23/1998 3:43:00 PM
From: pz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Tuesday June 23, 3:30 pm Eastern Time OPEC Wants To Cut 1M Barrels a Day By DIRK BEVERIDGE AP Business Writer VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Leading OPEC ministers said Tuesday they want to remove more than 1 million barrels of oil a day from the world's glutted market, where prices hit 12-year lows this month. A slash of that size would almost double the cuts six OPEC nations have already promised. Futures traders responded by pushing prices higher in New York and London. ''We're all discussing further cuts,'' Kuwaiti oil minister Sheik Saud Nasser al-Sabah said after talks with Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi. The Saudis, who have the biggest production, indicated they would consider reducing their output by more than their initial pledge of 225,000 barrels a day, which was proportionately smaller than the promises of some other OPEC states. But nobody has said publicly how many extra barrels the Saudis, or for that matter any other producer, should take off the market. Iran has proposed across-the-board cuts of 10 percent, starting from February production levels. The United Arab Emirates would go along with that, its oil minister, Obaid bin Saif al-Nasseri, said Tuesday. OPEC got itself into trouble in the winter when it flooded the market with crude just as the Asian economic crisis began choking off demand. Sheik Saud, the Kuwaiti minister, said OPEC should cut more than the 1.245 million barrels a day it pledged at an emergency session in March. Despite the pledge, OPEC delivered a cut of less than 1 million barrels a day, and prices plunged further. OPEC's average price fell below $11 per barrel last week, though it is slightly higher now. The cheap oil is a bargain for consumers but awful news for OPEC and other producers who think they should be getting somewhere between $17 and $20 a barrel. Heading into Wednesday's OPEC session, members have so far promised new cuts that would equal 620,000 barrels a day, beginning July 1. Non-OPEC members including Mexico, Russia and Oman have chipped in to raise the pledge to 823,000 barrels. But many producers are talking about more severe cuts. ''Personally, I think we need 1.3 million barrels a day,'' said Luis Giusti, the president of Venezuela's state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Giusti was referring to cuts from OPEC and non-OPEC. Brent crude oil to be delivered in August was up 42 cents at $13.66 today on London's International Petroleum Exchange in London, adding to gains of 39 cents from Monday's session. Light sweet crude oil for August was up 53 cents at $14.18 a barrel around midday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, also adding to gains from Monday. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwa it, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.