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To: Jamey who wrote (31262)	10/29/1998 1:33:00 PM
From: RGinPG	Respond to of 95453

I'm not a subscriber, but got this from infoseek this am: infoseek.com FOCUS-Oil prices slip as Saudis see no quick fix 06:57 a.m. Oct 29, 1998 Eastern LONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - World oil prices stayed under the cosh on Thursday as OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia downplayed any chance of a quick fix oil supply cut to lift flagging markets. World benchmark grade, Brent blend, was down 10 cents at $13.09 at 1153 GMT on Thursday. Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, arriving at an oil conference in Cape Town late on Wednesday, told reporters not to expect any news and to wait until an OPEC meeting on November 25 for any further action on oil output cuts. ''This is not an OPEC meeting. Let's wait until next month,'' he said, effectively pouring cold water on any chance of deeper cuts to oil supply being made in Cape Town. Earlier this year Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and non-OPEC oil producer Mexico clinched two agreements calling for oil output cuts of 3.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in an effort to boost persistently low oil prices. OPEC President Obaid bin Saif al-Nasseri said on Thursday that he was content with the OPEC supply reductions already agreed this year. ''The reductions we have agreed can be considered a good figure but we hope for better compliance from member countries,'' he told reporters before the opening of the international oil conference which is being attended by about 30 oil ministers and senior officials from producing and consuming nations. The deals aimed at trimming about four percent from world production have done little to lift prices despite OPEC's best efforts. Brent is still languishing well below the $13.80 a barrel average seen so far this year and some $6 under the average price seen in 1997. OPEC has been notorious for cheating on its self-imposed production quotas in the past but this time the deal appears to have seen better compliance. The group had acheived more than 90 percent compliance with its pledged cuts, OPEC Secretary General Rilwanu Lukman said on Wednesday in Cape Town. ''There is more than 90 percent compliance, almost 100 percent compliance,'' he told reporters. OPEC pledged to cut 2.6 million bpd with a further 500,000 bpd pledged from non-OPEC oil producers. Despite downplaying any chance of further cuts at the Cape Town conference, Saudi Arabia re-iterated its aim of higher oil prices.''Our goal is to see the price of oil going up in coordination with other producers,'' said a Saudi source on Thursday. ''The most important thing is that we act collectively to re-establish the price levels,'' said Algerian Oil minister Youcef Yousfi. ''If it is possible to reach an understanding now, why wait?'' he said, adding that he would support deeper cuts extended over a longer duration. Algeria, Kuwait and Libya have called for deeper cuts but have so far not found support from the architects of the original deals - Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or Mexico. The cuts agreed earlier this year helped boost oil Brent prices during the summer from under $12 to nearly $15. But over the past month, prices have fallen back again as stock building ahead of the winter failed to kick in. ''We need this winter to start quickly otherwise distillates are going to spoil any rally,'' said Nigel Saperia, head of the energy trading desk at Bankers Trust in London. A warm winter in the Western consuming nations might even lead to a further price drop, he added. ''The bulls are still hoping a cut will be made in November (at OPEC's meeting in Vienna) but the consensus is probably somewhere between a further cut and nothing,'' he said. A huge stock build in the United States last week dampened a tentative week long rally and winter heating oil stocks have ballooned to well above year ago levels. Prices in dollars per barrel: Oct 29 Oct 28 (1153 GMT) (close) IPE December Brent $13.09 $13.19 NYMEX December light crude $14.26 $14.29 Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.