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To: ldo79 who wrote (33201)	12/20/1998 10:02:00 AM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

An Iranian economist on the oil collapse. thr 024 opec-rashidi-press opec'spoliticking caused price slide, economist tehran, dec. 20, irna -- had members of the organization of pertroleu exporting countries (opec) refrained from politicizing issues and heeded their people's interests, oil prices would actually have risen, said the well-known economist, ali rashidi. in an interview with the english daily 'iran news' published sunday, rashidi stated that a short term solution now lies with saudi arabia, opec's largest producer. stating that the current fall in demand caused by a warmer weather, has lowered consumption by 500,000 bpd and a slow down of economic growth in japan and southeast asia has reduced consumption by another 700,000 bpd. rashidi stressed that opec should establish a 'fund' to stabilize foreign exchange revenue and correctly analyze international economic issues to protect the interest of other member states. ''had opec formed an international fund from surplus oil revenue of its members, as i had suggested 20 years ago, not only could it have boosted the economies of its developing states, but by granting loans to members during price slumps it could have helped producers avoid selling their oil cheaply,'' he said. moreover, such a fund could have made developing states independent of loans from the international monetary fund, which bring with them compulsory arbitrary prescriptions, he added. ''unfortunately, the politicians who run opec never considered their economists' opinions on pricing, production and the export of oil, resulting in oil prices descending to the 1995 level in real term,'' he said. opec's economic commission failed to correctly forecast the future state of oil market and failed to warn the ministers against raising the quota to 27.5 mbpd at the jakarta summit last year and did not take the ongoing economic variables into account,'' he pointed out adding this was the organization's biggest mistake in its 30-year history. rashidi said that the austerity measures adopted by western states and their to reduce oil consumption by improving energy consumption technology has saved them approximately 20 mbpd. their decision to buy oil from non opec members such as china and russia has reduced oepc's role as well.'' the degree to which opec members have relied on oil income and the push to launch ambitious industrial projects has created a huge demand for petrodollars, he said, believing that the survival and strengthening of opec was necessary for oil producers and urged member states to support the organization. fh/ks end ::irna 20/12/98 13:48

To: ldo79 who wrote (33201)	12/20/1998 11:06:00 AM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Ay least we have one western leader (Chirac) talking sense on the Iraq issue. Interesting that the one nation to join us in the attack (Britain) is the ex-colonial ruler of Iraq. Says something perhaps about the real objectives of all this. This will be my last post on the Iraq issue unless we start bombing again. Time to focus again on oil service stocks.