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To: drsvelte who wrote (37348)	2/11/1999 2:17:00 PM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Respond to of 95453

FOCUS-Oil slightly firmer but recovery out of sight LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - World oil prices firmed slightly on Thursday, even as looming oversupply issues led to further downcast predictions on the prospects of long term market recovery. Benchmark Brent blend crude oil futures for April delivery traded five cents higher at $10.35 a barrel at 1455 GMT in London, while analysts and industry chiefs issued new alarms on the possibility of chronic price weakness through the balance of the year. Royal/Dutch Shell (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L) chairman Mark Moody-Stuart said on Thursday that the oil industry should brace itself for the possibility that crude prices will remain weak for the foreseeable future. ''We're facing prices not much above $10,'' Moody-Stuart told reporters after the company announced results for 1998. ''We think that is likely to continue for quite some time.'' The Anglo Dutch oil giant reported a plunge in profits on Thursday, after massive charges for asset writedowns and restructuring, that has left it trailing behind competitors also hit hard last year by ailing oil prices. Stripping out the special charges, Shell's 1998 income was still down 36 percent, due to both prices and the effects of recession in Asia on chemicals worldwide. Analysts said on Thursday that a sluggish economic comeback in Asia would likely continue to siphon off world oil demand. A Reuters poll of 10 consultants plus the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed projected consumption from the region's battered economies still a far cry from levels before the financial crisis in 1997. The poll showed Asian oil demand averaging 19.38 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, a marginal one percent rise from last year but still short of 19.74 million bpd in 1997. ''This year would be the start of recovery for only a limited number of countries,'' said Liu Huai Bin, associate director of Asia Pacific Energy Research at Cambridge Energy. ''Full recovery is only expected between 2000-2001,'' said Roger Diwan, director of Global Oil market research in Petroleum Finance Company. The consultants' latest projections for 1999 are all lower than forecasts they made some months ago. Analysts were particularly bearish about Japan, forecasting a flat to two percent decline in its oil demand growth in 1999. ''Japan's oil demand is expected to fall by two percent to 5.43 million bpd. And in 2000, the growth rate is expected to be flat, down 0.2 percent at 5.42 million bpd,'' said Jeremy Hudson at Salomon Smith Barney in London. Kuwait Oil Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah on Thursday called on OPEC and non-OPEC producers to cooperate immediately to reduce oversupply of crude oil to world markets and help boost sagging prices. ''In my view there is still excess crude and we have to cure that,'' he told Reuters when asked if he still favoured production cuts. (Note: this article is ''in progress''; there will likely be an update soon.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------