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To: Gary Burton who wrote (39709)	3/12/1999 7:42:00 AM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 95453

Friday March 12 6:26 AM ET Oil Up As Producers Promise Big Cuts LONDON (Reuters) - World oil prices moved higher early Friday as an emergency producers' meeting declared that a big output cut deal was imminent to lighten world oversupply. International benchmark Brent was up 42 cents at $12.60 a barrel, regaining ground lost late Thursday as a first day of talks broke up inconclusively. Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said that he expected the five producer powers meeting in The Hague to come up with an agreement later Friday. ''It is a significant cut. It will definitely remove the glut and would definitely improve the price,'' he said. OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela and Algeria, together with non-OPEC Mexico were discussing new output cuts of 1.5 million to two million barrels per day (bpd), a Mexican official at the talks said. This would be buttressed by a further 305,000 bpd of reductions to cover for previous cuts not implemented by Iran. Tehran has now convinced other producers that the baseline for those cuts was overestimated. Prices have already got a tonic from the renewed producer efforts and are now back near their highest level since early November, some $3 above 25-year lows in real terms set late last year. ''This is good for the supply-demand balance but it does raise expectations, and the question as always with OPEC is can they translate words into deeds,'' said a London futures broker. Moderate compliance with existing three million total producer cut package helped pressure prices to the historic lows. The Mexican official said that the ministers were trying to strike a balance between ''a spectacular new agreement to boost oil prices and one that was realistic enough for oil markets to find credible.'' Any new agreement is expected to involve all 10 OPEC members already linked in a 2.6 million bpd cutback deal, and will need approval from OPEC's ministerial meeting on March 23 in Vienna. Saudi Arabia is ready to take on a quarter of a new cuts, potentially sacrificing 500,000 bpd as part of a two million bpd total reduction, a Gulf source said. Riyadh would also take a large share of the extra cuts to accommodate Iran, he added. Non-OPEC Mexico, Norway and Oman, which also agreed to restrain output last year, are again expected to be involved in the new deal. Norway's Oil and Energy Minister Marit Arnstad said Friday that Norway might consider deeper cuts if an agreement was reached in The Hague.