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To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (30366)	3/20/1999 10:45:00 AM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116790

Arab Oil Ministers Endorse Oil Output Reduction Plan Before OPEC Meetings Arab Oil Ministers Endorse Oil Output Cuts Before OPEC Meeting Abu Dhabi, March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Oil ministers from four Arab states that represent about half of the output of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries endorsed last weeks decision by world oil producers to cut global supply by 2.7 percent to boost prices. Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil producer, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which is not an OPEC member, met in Abu Dhabi to coordinate the strategy on output cuts prior to a full OPEC meeting in Vienna next week. Oman, which is also a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, was represented at today's meeting by a junior oil ministry official. OPEC nations along with Oman, Mexico and Norway plan to cut oil production by more than 2 million barrels a day, or about 2.7 percent of world supply, to boost prices that touched 12- year lows in December. ''This agreement will succeed more than previous ones because it is supported and backed by the highest authority of every government involved in the process,'' said Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi. Crude oil for April delivery rose 24 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $15.24 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest closing price since October 6. Saudi Arabia, the leader of the global campaign to reduce supplies, has already informed their customers of the reduction in output, said Al-Naimi. The oil minister said his country will cut production by 585,000 barrels a day, or 7.3 percent. The Arab gulf oil ministers said in a statement that ''depressed oil prices and high stock levels are detrimental to the interest of producing nations and harmful to the oil industry and, therefore, urgent action must be taken to remedy the situation.'' The GCC states rely on oil revenue for about 80 percent of their income. ©1999 Bloomberg, LP. All rights reserved. Terms of Service and Trademarks.

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (30366)	3/20/1999 10:47:00 AM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116790

What would be a result of the Russian conflict that would sabbotage oil/natural gas facilities and pipelines to Europe on energy prices?

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (30366)	3/20/1999 10:49:00 AM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116790

Bomb Kills 53 in Russia Saturday, 20 March 1999 V L A D I K A V K A Z , R U S S I A (AP) POLICE WERE searching today for a man and woman they suspected of carrying out a devastating bomb attack that killed at least 53 people and wounded more than 100 in an outdoor food market in a southern Russia town. The blast shortly before noon on Friday in the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz was the worst violence to hit the small southern republic since a 1992 ethnic war in which hundreds were killed. Republic president Alexander Dzasokhov called it a crime "against the whole multinational people of the republic," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Police could not offer any motive for the bombing. Possible reasons for the attack included local ethnic tension, an attack by extremists from nearby Chechnya or a turf war between rival criminal gangs. Local television stations aired composite drawings of a man and a woman whom police suspect of carrying out the attack, the Interfax news agency reported. No one had been arrested. The government had said that 62 people were killed in the blast, but revised the death toll today to 53. Police said there had been confusion about the number of dead because many of the bodies had been torn apart by the blast and emergency workers had to reassemble the shattered corpses. Police said only 21 of the dead had been identified, according to Interfax. President Boris Yeltsin's envoy to the region said late Friday that a group had claimed responsibility for the blast in a long-distance phone call to Vladikavkaz, ITAR-Tass reported. Vladimir Kalamanov said the group had not identified itself, but that its message suggested the motive behind the blast was "religious fanaticism." The majority religion in Northern Ossetia is Russian Orthodox Christian, and several of its neighbors are predominantly Muslim. The North Ossetians are also still involved in a bitter dispute with ethnic Ingush people that flared into war in 1992. Yeltsin went on state television on Friday to ask forgiveness from the victims' families for the lapse in security. "I apologize to the families of the victims. I apologize because I carry the responsibility for it all," Yeltsin said slowly, without elaborating. He vowed to undertake a "merciless fight" against the perpetrators. Yeltsin has been widely blamed for launching the botched war in Chechnya, which claimed independence from Russia after the 1994-96 fighting. A series of violent crimes, including kidnappings and bomb attacks, have kept tensions in Chechnya and surrounding Russian regions on the boil. In a telegram to Dzasokhov, Yeltsin said he considered the bombing "an attempt to destabilize the situation in the northern Caucasus, to sow enmity and hatred." He also decreed that March 21 would be a day of mourning for the victims of the attack. Meanwhile, a EURO 2000 soccer match between Russia and the tiny country of Andorra that had been scheduled to be held next week in Vladikavkaz will be played in Moscow, Russia's Soccer Union decided soon after the blast, according to the Sport Express newspaper. Even before the bombing, the Andorrans had expressed concerns about their team's safety playing so close to Chechnya. Police said they doubted the bombing had any connection to the soccer match, but all possibilities were being investigated.

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (30366)	3/20/1999 3:01:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116790

Russia Seeks Clues In Market Bombing 11:19 a.m. Mar 20, 1999 Eastern By Peter Henderson MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian government said Saturday a market bombing which killed more than 50 could be the work of religious extremists while newspapers looked for clues in the battle for power in neighboring Chechnya. Officials revised downwards the death toll from Friday's blast, saying 51 were killed when the blast tore through the main market in Vladikavkaz, about 50 km (30 miles) from Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya. Previously police had estimated the number of dead at 61. ''World analogies, as a rule, indicate that representatives of religious fanatics are often responsible for such acts,'' Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin told Russian television from Vladikavkaz in volatile southern Russia. He said bomb fragments would be examined in Moscow laboratories for clues to the bomb's origin. The Emergencies Ministry and a spokesman for the head of the Northern Ossetia region, of which Vladikavkaz is the capital, agreed on the death toll and said 154 had been injured, of whom 82 were in hospital. The Kremlin announced that Sunday would be a national day of mourning for victims of the bombing and of a fire in another region that killed more than 20 people earlier in the week. Police made composite images, based on witnesses' accounts, of two suspects who deposited a bag in the market and left minutes before the explosion, Lev Dzugayev, press secretary for regional government head Alexander Dzasokhov, told Reuters. He said no opposition group in the region was capable of such an act. ''It must be outside forces,'' he said by telephone from the region. The explosion occurred in the area of the crowded market where potatoes were sold, the Emergencies Ministry said. Television pictures showed bloodstained wreckage of market stalls and bodies amid heaps of potatoes and clothing. Officials have said the bomb may have been meant to undermine regional political stability and the federal government's reputation. The newspaper Kommersant Daily said violence had spilled out of Chechnya as the wartorn republic tried to make a collective choice on its future between religious and secular leaders. Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov is expected to visit Moscow for talks in the coming days. Kommersant said the opposition might be eager to foment a conflict between neighboring regions to keep Russia occupied. Dzugayev said the federal government, Russian regions and the neighboring former Soviet republic of Georgia had all sent aid which had arrived by Saturday. But the region has asked for more help, he added. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (30366)	3/20/1999 7:49:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116790

Saudi says new oil output cuts will work this time 04:51 a.m. Mar 20, 1999 Eastern By Edmund Blair ABU DHABI, March 20 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's oil minister said on Saturday that an agreement by key producers to cut oil output will succeed in boosting prices even though previous attempts had failed because the latest pact was backed by top government officials. ''The reason that this one will probably succeed even more than previous resolutions is the fact that this decision is suggested and backed and directed by the highest authority in every government that has participated in the decision process,'' Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said. Naimi, whose country is the world's largest oil producer and exporter, was speaking to reporters during the opening of a one-day meeting of oil ministers from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain ahead of the March 23 meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna. But Naimi would not comment about where he expected prices to go as a result of the agreement reached last week to cut global output by more than two million barrels per day, or almost three percent of daily output, from April 1. ''I keep saying we are not in the business of predicting what prices are. We have said our desire is to attain a price of between $18 and $20 per barrel'' for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate which hovered around $15.25 on Friday. In Vienna, Saudi Arabia and the 10 other OPEC members are expected to seal an accord reached last week in The Hague for a supply cut of just over 1.7 million barrels a day. Non-OPEC suppliers will make a further 286,000 bpd contribution. The economies of member nations of OPEC, which accounts for more than half ot the world's oil exports, have been hard-hit by months of weak oil prices amid a glut of supply and sluggish demand. The drop in the price cost OPEC more than $50 billion in lost export revenues in 1998. Oil prices, which hit 25-year lows late last year, failed to stage a recovery despite two previous rounds of supply cuts. UAE's Oil Minister Obaid bin Saif al- Nasseri told reportres the Abu Dhabi gathering was for consultation. He said that it was important to '' coordinate the positions of our countries.'' Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.