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To: Charles A. King who wrote (10448)	3/1/1999 8:57:00 AM
From: Charles A. King	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13091

Caracas Denies Dumping Oil In U.S. Market By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Venezuela's new energy minister Sunday denied market rumors that his country was dumping crude oil in the U.S. market in order to curtail American oil production and raise crude prices. ''This is absurd and untrue,'' Ali Rodriguez said in a speech to the Energy Council in Washington. Rodriguez, who assumed his post in early February, is in the United States for a three-day visit with government officials and oil producers. ''It would take a person with a very closed mind not to realize that this is not in our interest, and there's nobody with that point of view right now in our government, at least those that handle petroleum policy right now,'' he said through an interpreter. Due to the drop in prices, U.S. oil production last year in the lower 48 states was the lowest in more than 50 years. Thousands of independent oil producers have shut their wells as oil has become cheaper to import than to drill domestically. The United States now imports about half the crude oil it needs. Venezuela lost its spot last year to Saudi Arabia as the top supplier of crude oil to the U.S. market, although Venezuela still exports the most petroleum products, including gasoline and jet fuel, to the United States. The latest data from the U.S. Energy Department show that Saudi Arabia exported 1.39 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to the United States last year, while Venezuela shipped 1.36 million bpd. Rodriguez said the current drop in oil prices, which are at 12-year lows, was caused by overproduction of oil worldwide. He said the effect on the Venezuelan budget and economy had been devastating as the government had to fund programs this year with oil earnings priced at $9 a barrel, down from $11 last year. Oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet in late March to try to stop the decline in crude oil prices, possibly by undertaking a new round of oil production cuts. Questions or Comments Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. dailynews.yahoo.com