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

To: The Ox who wrote (39960)	3/15/1999 6:24:00 AM
From: diana g	Respond to of 95453

Oil Producers' Latest Output Cuts to Remain in Force One Year, Qatar Says --- (Bloomberg) bloomberg.com Energy News Mon, 15 Mar 1999, 6:19am EST Oil Producers' Latest Output Cuts to Last for 1 Yr, Qatar Says Doha, Qatar, March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil production cuts of 2 million barrels per day by the world's leading oil exporters will remain in force for a year from April 1, Qatar's oil minister said. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, and a dozen other countries, including non-OPEC producers Norway, Mexico and Oman, are set to cut a further 2 million barrels of oil a day, or 2.7 percent, from world supply aimed at boosting prices that fell to a 12-year low in December. The plan was assembled by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Mexico and Algeria during two days of talks outside The Hague last week. This round of cuts is the third undertaken in the past year by OPEC and nations outside the group. To date, the 11-nation OPEC group has complied with just 77 percent of promises it made in June to cut 2.6 million barrels a day from world markets, the International Energy Agency reported. ''the new cuts are on a pro-rata basis, as a percentage of production, and would be implemented for 12 months, until the end of March next year,'' Qatar's oil minister Abdullah bin Hamad al- Attiyah said in an interview with Bloomberg. He said Qatar, which produced 660,000 barrels of oil a day in February, would cut its production by 47,000 barrels per day as part of the new reduction plan. Crude oil rose $1.19, or 9 percent, last week to $14.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude prices have gained 22 percent in the past month. Ensuring that producers comply with their pledges will remain the biggest obstacle to price recovery, said analysts. ''No doubt there will be difficulties in getting the approval of all OPEC countries on the new cuts,'' said Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani, former oil minister of Saudi Arabia. ''There has been poor compliance to previous agreements, and the possibility still exists that some OPEC countries, like Venezuela which faces domestic opposition to more cuts, will fall short of full compliance to the new cuts.'' The former Saudi oil minister said oil prices would rise above $15 a barrel of Brent crude if there is full compliance to the new cuts. Brent closed Friday at $12.56 per barrel. Kuwait, which produced 1.99 million barrels a day in February, said it would cuts its oil output by a further 144,000 barrels per day as part of the new initiative. It made two oil output cuts totaling 225,000 barrels per day in 1998 under agreements which failed to increase prices.