Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Friede Goldman: FGI (formerly FGII) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rosemary who wrote (29)	3/11/1999 12:18:00 AM
From: Rosemary	Respond to of 75

We've got good news, let the shorts begin to cover: Saudis Say OPEC OKs Production Cuts RUB AL KHALY, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Large and small oil producers are close to cutting production to shore up oil prices, a Saudi official said Wednesday. ''There is an agreement'' that will be reached between members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC members before an OPEC meeting in Vienna on March 23, the official said on condition of anonymity. The comments came after the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar met in the Rub al Khaly desert for the official opening of the Shaiba oil field nearly 600 miles southeast of the capital Riyadh. The official refused to provide details of a proposed production agreement. But a statement issued after the ministers' meeting said Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar will work ''in intensive consultation with OPEC members and outside it to take all the necessary measures'' to bring about a production cut. The most important measures will be to deal with ''cutting production in quantities to be reckoned with, that will ensure the withdrawal of excess supply from the market which will lead to a rise in prices,'' the statement said. It did not elaborate. In trading after the meeting, North Sea Brent Blend crude oil for April delivery shot up 90 cents at $12.46 a barrel in trading in London. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude for April delivery rose 84 cents to $14.69. A glut of oil on world markets, a result of overproduction and reduced demand in the wake of financial crises around the globe, had depressed petroleum prices on world markets. In the United States, average retail gasoline prices last month were at an all-time low, when adjusted for inflation. Prices edged up less than half a cent in the latest Lundberg Survey last week, the first increase since September, to nudge back above $1 a gallon. But while falling prices have helped consumers, the ministers said the large supplies of oil and the drop in crude oil prices to 20-year lows threaten to curb oil development and investment, something that could endanger future supplies. Low world oil prices have taken an especially heavy toll on the Gulf countries that depend heavily on petroleum revenues.