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

To: marc chatman who wrote (30902)	10/19/1998 7:10:00 PM
From: pz	Respond to of 95453

Marc, Maybe this is what they were referring to on CNBC. Paul Wednesday October 14, 2:58 pm Eastern Time Venezuela's Giusti against extending oil cut now CARACAS, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The head of Venezuela's state oil company, Luis Giusti, said Wednesday he was opposed to deciding now to extend the duration of world oil output cuts, adding that the market should be monitored daily to decide when to abandon the policy. The oil ministers of Venezuela, Mexico and Saudi Arabia agreed two weeks ago to recommend extending the worldwide cuts, originally scheduled to end in June 1999, to the end of next year. Asked in a television interview whether he supported extending the agreement if prices remain at current levels, Giusti said: ''I would say that it is not worth extending the period at the moment. It is one thing to say we could consider it depending on how things go in the market and another to say we should extend the cuts now.'' Oil producers implemented cuts this year totalling about four percent of world oil supply to rescue prices from their lowest level in a decade, but the policy succeeded only in stemming the slide. While careful to avoid direct criticism of government policy, Giusti has repeatedly argued that cutting output hands market share to competitors with higher costs and damages the country's plan for rapid expansion of its oil sector. West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed Tuesday at $14.27 per barrel, 22 percent above its ten-year low in June, but still 33 percent below the price one year ago. ''The cuts policy can be understood and can be supported. But we have to be careful not to perpetuate it and we should see it as a dynamic situation, looking at it day to day and week to week to see when to start on the growth path again,'' he added. Venezuela had lost about 200,000 barrels per day of market share in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast as a result of the cuts, Giusti said, but he added that this could be recovered. Giusti's comments come against a backdrop of growing calls within Venezuela for the cut to be abandoned. Critics say the policy has deepened a recession in the country and had little impact on revenues. However, the attitude in other countries of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is very different: Oman's Oil Minister Mohammad bin Hamad bin Seif al- Ramhi said on Tuesday that Kuwait, Qatar, Iran and Algeria were ready to make further cuts if prices did not rise within a month. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, the Alan Greenspan of oil markets, said two weeks ago that continuous production cuts were not the solution to the oil price crash.