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To: SargeK who wrote (33255)	12/21/1998 11:03:00 AM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Oil slides again as Iraq tension dissolves (updates prices, fresh quotes, changes dateline) LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped again on Monday after Iraq's exports survived a four-day military onslaught without disruption, leaving glutted markets threatening new lows. Benchmark North Sea Brent was trading down 13 cents at $9.85 a barrel, uncomfortably close to a fresh 12-year low struck on December 10. With hostilities against Baghdad apparently over for now, bearish fundamentals were reasserting themselves with a vengeance, analysts said. ''The fundamentals are not in favour of a recovery,'' said Manoucher Takin from the Centre for Global Energy Studies. ''You have global stocks 400 million to 500 million barrels above year ago levels, warmer than expected weather and flagging demand in Asia,'' he said. ''Speaking personally, I wouldn't rule out an emergency OPEC meeting before March. There needs to be further OPEC and non-OPEC production cuts.'' Western oil industry officials said initial assessments indicated that four days of air strikes aimed mainly at Iraqi military targets seemed to have had little direct impact on the Arab country's export facilities. Iraqi oil exports were running normally on Monday, said an industry official familiar with monitoring under a U.N. oil-for-food sales programme said. Liftings from the country's Gulf port of Mina al-Bakr had proved a little slow during the hostilities but no shipments had been cancelled. Pipeline deliveries to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan were also running to plan on Monday. It was not known how much damage was sustained in and around the Basrah refinery, which the United States said was targeted to stop smuggling of petroleum products. Iraq recently has pumped about 2.5 million barrels a day of crude, exporting 1.8 million bpd under the U.N. humanitarian exchange and refining the remainder. No petroleum products are exported under the U.N. deal. ''Iraq loadings are normal, while on the political side support for the U.S. and U.K. positions on Iraq is melting away, and that could point to renewed pressure for a lifting of sanctions,'' said Christoper Bellew of Prudential Bache International in London. Meanwhile, Venezuelan President-elect Hugo Chavez plans to meet Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo in Mexico in the next few days for what he described as urgent talks between the two key oil producers. Chavez said one of the main topics with Zedillo would cover would be oil, following a meeting in Madrid last week between Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico, the architects of two rounds of oil production cuts this year to shore up prices. Prices slumped by more than $1 as the meeting ended without commitments to cut more output. (Note: this article is ''in progress''; there will likely be an update soon.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------