To: BigBull who wrote (39868 ) 3/14/1999 7:05:00 AM From: BigBull Respond to of 95453
Irna story on "the cuts" thr 008 opec-agreement-press daily welcomes recent agreement among opec members tehran, march 14, irna -- the english daily 'tehran times' sunday welcomed the recent agreement reached among all opec members, excluding iraq and two non-opec exporters to reduce overall production and pointed out to the analysts belief that the opec members must stick to their new quota if this agreement must prove effective. the daily was commenting on the depression in oil market which has sounded a note of warning in many countries like iran whose economy is heavily dependent on the hard currency income through crude exports. the iranian foreign ministry played a crucial role in convening members of organization of petroleum exporting countries (opec) with the agenda of slashing the quota, lauded the article in the opinion column of the paper adding that talks by other high officials of the country further influenced the negotiations and decisions at the hague meeting. noting that leading opec members together with non-opec member mexico, thrashed out the production-cut agreement during the two days of meetings in the netherlands, the daily added that the deal must however be formally approved at a march-23 opec meeting in vienna. some pundits are however skeptical about the chances of success of the new agreement as they believe that violation of quota has become a chronic disease with some opec members, noted the daily. ''however, the analysts maintain that if the violation of quota is done away with and the new agreement is fully honored, the oil prices are likely to shoot up to dlrs 15 to 20 per barrel in the coming months,'' stated the paper in conclusion. fh/ks end ::irna 14/03/99 10:29