OPEC fails to reach oil production consensus

Monday, March 13, 2000

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - After further talks between OPEC members, there was still no consensus within the cartel yesterday on raising production at the end of March, the United Arab Emirates oil minister said.

The UAEs Obaid bin Saif al-Nasseri said after meeting with his Iranian counterpart that the decision on whether to raise production and by how much would be made when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Vienna at the end of this month.

"For the time being, it is not clear whether weve reached a consensus. But OPEC will always make the right decision, and that decision will be made on March 27," al-Nasseri said.

"We are consulting with our colleagues and we are trying to reach an agreement on the level of production the market needs. It is wrong to determine a figure before the meeting," he said.

He said all options were still open on whether to maintain or increase current output.

The United States has pressed oil producers to increase their output to halt rising oil prices, with some officials saying the market needs a supply increase of 2.5 million barrels a day.

Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said before meeting with al-Nasseri that more discussions were needed before making a decision on output.

"How much and when we increase production depends on more consultations," said Zanganeh, who has been touring Gulf nations to coordinate positions ahead of the Vienna session.

After talks earlier with his Omani counterpart, Mohammed al-Rumhi, Zanganeh said Irans current position is that it supports an extension of the ongoing OPEC production cut, which expires at the end of the month.

In agreements signed in 1998 and 1999, non-OPEC Oman joined OPEC and non-OPEC producers in removing about 5 million barrels a day from the market through this month to boost oil prices.

Consequently, crude has surged from $10.72 a barrel on Dec. 10, 1998 to a nine-year high of $34.20 in trading Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

)2000 THE PLAIN DEALER. Used with permission.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/index.ssf?/news/pd/w13oil.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), March 13, 2000