EGYPT: Arab oil ministers: No adjustments

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EGYPT: Arab oil ministers: No adjustments Posted Mon, 27 Nov 2000

(AP Online - COMTEX)

Salah Nasrawi

CAIRO, Egypt - Ministers from Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil exporting nations said Saturday that there is no need to adjust production levels now but added that they are closely watching the market for any sign that a policy change is required.

"If there is any need to increase or reduce production, we will do it," said Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi, after a meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"Our aim is to have a stable market and a fair price in order to help maintain world (economic) growth," Naimi said.

Qatar's oil minister, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiya, said the broader Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries already has increased its production this year by 3.7 million barrels a day, helping to meet demand from consuming countries.

"If we produce more, we will create a problem instead of solving the current one," he said.

Although oil prices have topped $30 a barrel, some OPEC ministers fear they will bottom out in the spring when warm weather curbs demand for heating oil, and the cartel could end up cutting rather than increasing production in 2001. Producers are looking ahead to the January 17 OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, when they will re-evaluate oil prices and output, the Arab ministers said.

Europe and the United States have pressed for production increases this year, and OPEC has accommodated them four times. However, prices have remained at heights unseen in a decade.

Producer countries, which blame high prices on consumer gasoline taxes, say they want prices to remain stable between $22 and $28 per barrel. Consumer nations, advocating production increases, seek a a stable price in the $20 to $25 range, particularly as they head into the home heating oil season.

All OPEC countries except Saudi Arabia are pumping as much oil as possible. Naimi has said that in an emergency his country could put an extra 1.8 million barrels of oil a day on the market within 90 days.

Prices haven't come down with the production increases. The situation has shored up budgets of some oil-producing nations that had faced the prospect of scaling back generous social benefits and had postponed infrastructure projects.

The United States pressed its case for further production increases at an energy conference earlier this month in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, involving oil-producing and oil-consuming nations. After three days of talking, the two groups remained split on how to achieve a stable, fair price. Still, al-Attiya praised that meeting as "positive and successful."

The annual OAPEC meeting brings together ministers and oil officials from 10 nations: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. Unlike OPEC, the group does not seek to regulate oil production or prices.

http://cape2cairo.iafrica.com/businesssense/156673.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 27, 2000


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