The END of Y2k FOOLISHNESS:

OIL Overproduction Worse Than Thought

``The market is in a liquidation phase,'' said Peter Gignoux of Salomon Smith Barney. ``Markets don't like to be fooled. It appears overproduction was worse than had been expected.''

OVERPRODUCTION"...........REALLY??........BBBBBBut........WHAT ABOUT THE "EMBEDDED CHIPS" AND ALL THE "unscheduled problems"??

------------------------------------------------ Monday April 10 7:24 AM ET Oil Falls Amid Signal for Output Rollover LONDON (Reuters) - World oil prices fell again on Monday despite bullish Saudi support for a possible rollover of OPEC production levels when the exporter group meets in June. North Sea benchmark Brent blend crude futures were down 23 cents at $22.35 per barrel in London after touching a low of $22.10, their weakest in five months. U.S. light crude futures were 39 cents off at $24.65. Dealers said the market was weaker partly because it expected additional crude would be hitting customers soon following an OPEC pact last month to hike output from April 1. Sentiment had also been affected by reports of worsening compliance within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries with output restraints aimed at propping up prices. Overproduction Worse Than Thought ``The market is in a liquidation phase,'' said Peter Gignoux of Salomon Smith Barney. ``Markets don't like to be fooled. It appears overproduction was worse than had been expected.'' Dealers appeared unimpressed with a statement by a Saudi source that Saudi Arabia saw no reason for producers to raise output when they meet in June, given the recent price fall. ``We almost certainly think there is no need for an increase in June. As things look, the market seems to be soft. Of course, we still have no full information on inventories and the question of Iraqi output,'' the source told Reuters in Dubai. The source said the kingdom, the largest oil producer, expected crude prices to remain within the $22-$28 price band OPEC set as an ideal range for a basket of OPEC crudes.

The OPEC basket was at $22.24 a barrel on Friday.

The source added that Saudi Arabia fully supported the idea of an automatic price mechanism whereby OPEC would automatically adjust output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) if prices stray outside the band for more than 20 trading days.

OPEC agreed to the informal arrangement at last month's ministerial conference in Vienna where nine of the 11 members also agreed to increase output by seven percent to ease runaway prices and allow consumers to replenish depleted fuel stocks.

Saudi Fully Behind Price Mechanism

Some oil analysts and traders had said they were skeptical about the automatic output adjustment plan because of what they perceived as Saudi Arabia's lack of enthusiasm for it. But the Saudi source familiar with the country's oil policy said the kingdom was 100 percent behind the pact.

The market has been struggling to find a footing at lower ranges in the wake of the March meeting, which agreed to review the new output levels at an extraordinary conference in June. Iran had opted out of the deal, although it said it would still up output. Sanctions-hit Iraq was not part of the accord.

Iran on Monday issued a fresh warning that it would not surrender its oil market share despite opting out of the deal.

``We shall not give up share. We will produce whatever would have been allocated to us (under the pact),'' Iran's OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili told Reuters in Dubai. ``At the same time we are not going to oversupply,'' added Kazempour, senior adviser to Iran Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh.

OPEC Secretary-General Rilwanu Lukman said in published remarks OPEC would not change output at the June meeting if prices stayed healthy but could hike output if prices soared. Brent has shed over $2 since OPEC's agreement and is 29 percent off from nine-year peaks above $30 hit in early March.

Geoff Pyne of Standard Bank said global oil inventories looked like they might be larger than had been anticipated, and demand for physical oil had been weaker than expected because refineries were waiting for further price falls before buying.

The market in the second quarter looked like it would have a comfortable 1.8 million bpd of new crude from OPEC including Iraq and non-OPEC Mexico, versus the first quarter, he said. ``So if demand stays weak, OPEC needs to keep its options open,'' he said. ``It's time for a little bit of moral support.''

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20000410/bs/markets_oil_93.html

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), April 10, 2000

Answers

cpr,

Glad to see you are doing better. Learning to make paragraphs and toggle your caps lock key are good accomplishments. Now, about that bold tag---when it's time to turn it off, just put the B inside the carots again, with a slash (/) in front of it. Unless you meant for your entire article to be in bold? If so, it could be argued that it dilutes the content to place equal emphasis on every word.

-- (trying@to.help), April 10, 2000.

HEY, "Trying" Give it a rest. If you go to "view page source" in any browser you will see where I put the Closing slashes. AND if you take a look at another response to your attempt to "teach", you will see:

SAMPLES

HTML...............

EMBEDDED IN THE POST

JUST LIKE HERE

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), April 10, 2000.

Bold off!

That was really good, but remember those closing tags, cpr. Otherwise, everyone who posts after you will have their posts in bold. Put the B in carots with the slash (/B> before the B. Can you format colors, too?

-- (trying@to.help), April 10, 2000.

ROTFLMAO!!!

rollin' on the floor...

The Dog

-- The Dog (dogdesert@hotmail.com), April 10, 2000.

Not so fast, teach....

Forget your spell checker? forget to drink your "caret" juice this morning? LOL

-- Anal-Retentives R Us --

-- Debbie (dbspence@usa.net), April 10, 2000.

ROFLMAO Too!!!!!

Is it me or is this place getting wackier and wackier?

Consumer,,,,,who be thinking bout maybee goin back to skool....lol

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), April 10, 2000.

??? *Of course* embedded systems increase production. That's what they're for.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), April 10, 2000.