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To: Don Green who wrote (24948)	12/27/1998 11:23:00 AM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116762

FOCUS-Iran backs OPEC talks to rescue oil price 07:46 a.m. Dec 27, 1998 Eastern By Michael Georgy DUBAI, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Iran on Sunday said it would back any new moves to rescue the besieged oil market but warned that some fellow OPEC producers were using Tehran's controversial demands to mask other problems in the fractious cartel. Iran's OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said Tehran would support holding an emergency meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to boost the oil price currently at 12-year lows. ''Iran would back any effort that would lead to the restoration of prices,'' he told Reuters in an interview by telephone from Tehran. But Ardebeli, a key adviser to Iran's oil minister, said Iran would not back down from its demands to base any of its own cuts from a higher baseline. He said his country was being used as a scapegoat by other OPEC members to cover up a bitter battle for market share at a time of high oil supplies and eroding demand because of the Asian financial crisis. At OPEC's last meeting in November, heavyweight Saudi Arabia accused Iran and Venezuela of going back on supply cuts agreed earlier this year. At that meeting, Iran insisted that the benchmark for OPEC's summer agreement to cut output was unfair. Ardebeli said on Sunday that Tehran's demand for a higher production baseline does not ''warrant such a big noise.'' ''This is a scapegoat to dilute the attention of the international oil community from issues including the full return of Iraqi oil supplies to the market,'' Ardebili added. He said OPEC members were trying to play down fierce competition between Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for the lucrative U.S. market. Though Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, has often been at odds with fellow major exporters Iran and Venezuela, it sees hope that a new Venezuelan government will work more closely with the cartel to save prices. OPEC states boosted production during the 1991 Gulf War to make up for lost production from member Iraq after it was slapped with a United Nations trade embargo when it invaded Kuwait. At the time, Saudi Arabia, which had the greatest surplus capacity, made up most of the supply gap. ''We have been reminding OPEC of the cost of Iraq's (eventual) full return to the market. When the Iraqis were leaving the market, certain countries benefited the most,'' said Ardebili. ''This issue is still on the agenda.'' Two rounds of supply curbs by oil producers inside and outside the 11-member OPEC this year have failed to lift the oil market from one of its deepest depressions ever. Iran wants OPEC to recognise 3.925 million barrels per day (bpd) as the basis for its individual output reduction and any future cuts instead of the 3.623 million bpd judged by the media and independent analysts. Ardebili said that during an emergency meeting in March OPEC agreed to that level but that ''the rules were changed'' only for Iran in June. ''I remember we sat up behind closed doors until three in the morning and they agreed,'' he said. ''This was documented.'' ''We are demanded by certain (OPEC) members to change the basis for the second (round of) cuts, whereas others, including Venezuela, are given much above their Jakarta quota,'' he said. OPEC agreed in a meeting in Jakarta last year to raise production by ten percent, a move which backfired. Analysts say Iran still blames the Saudis for pushing OPEC into boosting output at a time Asian demand was collapsing. Iran says that it was only able to capitalise on its quota from the Jakarta meeting of 3.942 million bpd in March, when its production reached 3.925 million bpd. ''Others reached their quota and we had not,'' said Ardebili. He said Iran would only take part in any fresh cuts if the Islamic Republic maintained its current output cut baseline. Ardebili made it clear that Tehran would in ''no way'' compromise on the sensitive baseline issue. ''We will not change the baseline. There is no reason to go lower. This will not happen even if people are pushing on Iran,'' he said. Asked to comment on reports that an OPEC minister was soon due to visit Iran in search of a resolution of the output issue, Ardebili said: ''I have not heard about this (anyone arriving). We would welcome any minister.'' Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited