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To: JZGalt who wrote (26047)	7/20/1998 5:40:00 PM
From: P.Prazeres	Respond to of 95453

Iraq Sees Oil Exports Increasing Within Months, Report Says Damascus, July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rashid said Iraq, which is allowed limited oil sales to pay for food and medicine under a United Nations supervised program, intends to increase its oil exports to nearly 2 million barrels a day within a few month, and increase exports to 2.3 million barrels a day within a year, Agence France Presse and Platt's Global Alert reported, citing the Saturday edition of the Syrian newspaper Tishrin. Rashid said Iraq now exports between 1.7 and 1.8 million barrels a day, the report said. He also said Iraq is working on a ''major project'' to supply gas to Turkey and Europe and that ''friendly European parties'' are deciding whether to take part in the project, which has a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters a year, according to the report. The U.S. has blocked the first oil equipment contract forwarded by Iraq to the United Nations Sanctions Committee to improve its dilapidated oil infrastructure and increase its output, according to the Middle East Economic Survey.

To: JZGalt who wrote (26047)	7/20/1998 5:43:00 PM
From: P.Prazeres	Respond to of 95453

Gasoline Falls to 4-Year Low on Weaker-Than-Expected Demand New York, July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Gasoline futures fell for a fourth day, dropping to the lowest price since 1994, as record refinery output overwhelms consumer demand, even at the height of the summer driving season. U.S. gasoline stockpiles rose unexpectedly during the week ended July 10, an industry report last week showed, amid record refinery output. Gasoline also was dragged lower by crude oil, which fell more than 4 percent. ''It looks like the gasoline season is over before it's started,'' said George Speicher, an oil trader at Fimat Futures USA in Houston. ''It's the same story: too much supply. You've had good (gasoline) demand in the U.S., but we are a pretty good dumping ground for the rest of the world.'' Gasoline for August delivery fell 1.88 cents, or 4.2 percent, to 42.93 cents a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest closing price for a contract closest to expiration since Feb. 16, 1994. U.S. gasoline demand during the key summer driving season hasn't been strong enough to erode stockpiles swelled by record refinery output. U.S. refineries produced a record 8.422 million barrels of gasoline a day during the week ended July 10, the American Petroleum Institute said last week. That contributed to an unexpected 2.8 million-barrel increase in stockpiles to 221.4 million barrels. Gasoline demand is ''definitely below expectations for the kind of season we were supposed to have, and the expectations were enormous,'' said Ric Navy, a trader at Paribas Futures Inc. in New York. August crude oil futures fell during their next-to-last day of trading amid expectations that output cuts by world producers won't boost prices until next year. August crude fell 64 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $13.34 a barrel on the Nymex, the lowest closing price for a contract closest to expiration since June 19. In London, September Brent crude fell 44 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $12.36 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange, also a one-month low. OPEC Cuts Take Time Production cuts pledged by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries won't boost prices until next year, the Centre for Global Energy Studies said in a report. The report from the London-based consulting firm founded by former Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani echoed similar remarks last week by Kuwaiti and Venezuelan oil ministers. OPEC succeeded in making only about 80 percent of the production cuts it promised before July, the CGES report said, adding that it will take time for cuts promised since then to wipe out the world oversupply, especially since Asian oil demand is weak. ''We need to see these cuts,'' said Navy. ''There's tremendous oversupply of everything across the board, including gasoline and heating oil.'' Heating oil futures plunged to a 12-year low. Refineries produce heating oil as a byproduct of gasoline, even though heating fuel demand in low during summer in the U.S. During the week ended July 10, distillate fuel inventories, which include heating oil and diesel, were 12 percent higher than a year earlier, the API report showed. August heating oil dropped 1.18 cents, or 3.2 percent, to 36.30 cents a gallon on the Nymex, the lowest closing price for a contract closest to expiration since July 31, 1986.