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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (38012)	2/23/1999 10:26:00 AM
From: Platter	Respond to of 95453

FOCUS-Oil edges higher on U.S., European weather LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher on Tuesday with a cold front in the United States and shipping problems in Europe providing beleaguered crude with a much needed boost. International benchmark Brent traded 14 cents higher by early afternoon in London at $10.72 per barrel. High water levels on the Rhine -- a key European oil supply artery -- meant barges carrying oil products could not get to most German destinations. Melting snow and heavy rain have caused the floods. Traders said barges could not pass beyond Duisberg in northern Germany and that the Main and Mosel rivers were also impassable. The Weather Sevices Corporation of the United States said that coming days would see one of the longest periods of below normal temperatures this winter season. Cold weather and possibly snow would hit the key northeast U.S. market right up to the weekend. The U.S. weather had also driven prices up on Monday. But despite this week's gains, weak fundamentals continued to dampen any chance of an imminent global recovery. Oil prices are still languishing near 25-year lows, after adjusting for inflation, with members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries so far unable to engineer a market recovery. Venezuela's new Minister of Energy and Mines Ali Rodriguez said on Monday the OPEC oil cartel had not done enough to rescue rock-bottom oil prices, and the group would need more than one meeting to lift them significantly. The cartel is due to meet on March 23 in Vienna, and industry analysts say the group will have to slice at least another million barrels a day from production to eradicate the oversupply in world markets. An OPEC spokesman said on Tuesday a meeting set for Friday in Vienna was a technical gathering at which no OPEC ministers were expected to be present and no discussion of production cuts was on the agenda. The meeting was intended to enhance cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers, who have all been hit by the slump in oil prices since late 1997. Russian Fuel and Energy Minister Sergei Generalov is expected to attend the meeting. Russia is not a member of OPEC, but Generalov attended two full OPEC meetings as an observer last year. Almost daily clashes over the skies of Iraq have had no impact on the market with traders confident the skirmishes would not disrupt the flow of Iraqi crude under an oil-for-food deal with the United Nations. In the latest confrontationU.S. warplanes dropped bombs at military targets in northern Iraq on Tuesday after they were targeted by anti-aircraft fire. It was the third consecutive day of attacks by U.S. and British warplanes against no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq. More than 80 such raids have been conducted since mid-December after Iraq vowed to defy the zones and began targeting western warplanes. Feb 23 Feb 22 (1440 GMT) (close) IPE April Brent $10.72 $10.59 NYMEX March light crude $12.24 $11.96