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

To: Snowshoe who wrote (27455)	8/10/1998 4:54:00 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

FOCUS-Oil stumbles again under weight of glut Monday August 10, 12:48 pm Eastern Time LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - World oil prices sagged on Monday after tentative gains crumbled under the weight of a mountainous glut of petroleum. Benchmark Brent was trading 15 cents lower at $12.44 a barrel at 1515 GMT after lingering Iraq-U.N. tension help keep the North Sea crude at up to 10 cents in positive territory in the morning. Brokers said the losses were spurred by selling in U.S. crude markets that triggered technical signals in London pushing Brent downhill. The fundamental supply/demand background continued to look uninspiring, dealers said. Chronic global petroleum oversupply continues to dominate sentiment, although a confrontation between Iraq and the United Nations over arms inspections will tend to limit the extent of the downside, brokers said. ''There's nothing there for bulls. It's all looking a little negative,'' said Christopher Bellew of Prudential Bache International. ''OPEC cuts look like they are not going to be enough to to provide support, and the Iraqi situation isn't looking like it's going to come to a head soon.'' London brokers GNI said that the U.S. attempt to find the perpetrators of bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Friday would be supportive if the suspects turned out to be linked to an oil producing government. The U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) disarming Iraq has suspended arms inspections of new sites after Baghdad's decision to halt cooperation with the U.N. arms inspectors, a U.N. official said at the weekend. But UNSCOM experts would continue to monitor sites already identified by inspectors, the official said. Iraqi leaders said they would allow the inspectors to continue limited weapons monitoring on condition the monitors have regard for Iraq's sovereignty and dignity. The United Nations on Thursday condemned Iraq's decision to stop cooperating with the inspectors as ''totally unacceptable'' and urged Iraq not to take the measure. Although prices have held steady in recent days, oil is still around $7 below last year's average price. Iraq has said it would allow the U.N. to carry out limited weapons monitoring on condition the monitors have regard to its sovereignty and dignity. Oil prices have hovered stubbornly around the $13 level in recent weeks with the market weighed down by massive oversupplies resulting from rising output and a downturn in demand in crisis-hit Asia. The first signs are that OPEC's latest output cuts are filtering through although many experts do not expect any major improvement in prices until the last quarter of the year. The extent of oversupply was detailed by an International Energy Agency (IEA) report on Friday showing crude stocks hit record high levels in June despite cuts by producing countries. The Paris-based IEA said commercial stocks held by developed countries rose by an unprecedented 3.5 million barrels a day in May. End-June stocks were a record 2.79 billion barrels. Prices in dollars per barrel: Aug 10 Aug 7 (1525 GMT) (close) IPE September Brent 12.44 12.59 NYMEX September light crude 13.43 13.80