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To: BigBull who wrote (41630)	4/6/1999 8:46:00 AM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

I really don't know what to believe about virtually any news coming out of Iraq these days, but I am posting this news because it's affecting the price of oil. Energy News Tue, 6 Apr 1999, 8:35am EDT Crude Oil Prices Rise After Decline in Flow to Iraqi Port Disrupts Supply Crude Oil Rises After Decline in Flow to Iraqi Port (Update1) (Adds trader comment in 3rd paragraph, details in 5th.) London, April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose 2.6 percent after a decline in the flow of oil to Iraq's biggest port, raising concern that exports could be disrupted amid charges by Iraq that U.S. and U.K. forces attacked an Iraqi oil pumping station. The flow of oil to Iraq's southern port of Mina al Bakr fell about 45 percent yesterday to 36,000 barrels an hour. Iraq said the drop resulted from U.S. and U.K. attacks on an Iraqi pumping station, a charge the U.S. denied. Oil flow to the port has since risen to 50,000 barrels an hour, closer to its normal level of 65,000 barrels, a United Nations official in Baghdad said. ''The main headline is the disruption of Iraqi supply,'' said Tony Machacek, a broker with Prudential Bache (Futures) Ltd. ''The market is still solidly in a bull trend, and any bullish news appears to affect prices.'' Brent crude oil for May delivery rose as much as 38 cents a barrel to $15.10 on London's International Petroleum Exchange. Crude last week reached $15.28, the highest price in almost 11 months. The London market was closed yesterday as part of the Easter holiday, a day when May crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 31 cents a barrel, or 1.9 percent. Disruptions to Iraq's oil supply come at a time when the market is sensitive to falling production levels, traders said. Oil-producing countries last month agreed to reduce world supply by 2.7 percent. The agreement went into affect April 1. Traders are now waiting for evidence that producers are lowering output and hoping such cuts will erode global supplies. Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf said allied planes bombed a main pipeline pumping station on Friday. U.S. officials said Iraqi military sites were attacked on Friday and Sunday while U.S. and U.K. planes patrolled a no-fly zone in southern Iraq, though it said no control stations were hit. Iraqi oil exports were not interrupted because the port had ample supplies on hands to fill tankers, according to Peter Boxt, a spokesman for Saybolt International BV, the Dutch company that monitors Iraqi oil exports for the UN. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © Copyright 1999, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.