- Title: AUSTRIA: UNITED NATIONS BAN ON IRAQI OIL EXPORTS ARE RELAXED
- Date: 4th June 1996
- Summary: VIENNA, AUSTRIA (JUNE 4, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV WIDE OF VIENNA / HOTEL WHERE SAUDI DELEGATES ARE STAYING (4 SHOTS) 0.21 2. SLV ARRIVALS OF SAUDI DELEGATES 0.30 3. SV SAUDI OIL MINISTER ALI NAIMI ARRIVING AT HIS HOTEL (4 SHOTS) 0.47 4. GV/SV EXTERIOR OF OPEC BUILDING / SECURITY (4 SHOTS) 1.10 5. SV IRAQI OIL MINISTER AMR MUHAMMAD ARRIVING AND SPEAKING ABOUT STATUS OF OIL QUOTA (ENGLISH) (3 SHOTS) 2.29 6. SV SECRETARY GENERAL OF OPEC RILWANU LUKMAN SPEAKING ABOUT QUANTITY OF OIL ON MARKET (ENGLISH) 2.52 7. NIGERIAN OIL MINSTER DAN ETTE SAYING HE WILL MEET THE IRAQIS (ENGLISH) (2 SHOTS) 3.25 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 19th June 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VIENNA, AUSTRIA
- City:
- Country: Austria
- Reuters ID: LVA8E35P4Z42X7UCDDDIZER6SOWT
- Story Text: INTRO: Almost one million extra barrels of oil are about to hit the world market as a United Nations Gulf War ban on Iraqi exports is relaxed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- The 100th ministerial conference of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) opened in Vienna on Wednesday (June 5).
Delegates predicted at the start of the meeting that OPEC members would not have the stomach for addressing the explosive issue of output cuts.
A Saudi-backed consensus was building to extend a freeze on current quotas, set in 1993, for the 10 other participating members with Iraq pencilled in for extra volume.
OPEC hopes that low industry stocks after a cold northern winter and demand for fuel in a robust global economy will mop up the oil and keep prices stable.
Some OPEC-watchers such as Oystein Berentsen, head of crude trading at Norwegian state oil giant Statoil, worry about continued violations of existing quotas.
"I think it is neutral to bearish for the market," Berentsen said. "If they include Iraq and everyone else is reduced to quota it would be positive...otherwise the market will be dubious." Industry monitors estimate that violations have taken OPEC volume as high as 26 million barrels daily lately, compared with the agreed ceiling of 24.52 million.
Add the extra 800,000 that Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Rasheed said on Tuesday he hoped to sell by the end of June and OPEC will be at the top end of most demand forecasts.
OPEC linchpin Saudi Arabia believed demand would be strong, delegates said in the lobbies.
Iraq will be selling oil for the first time since 1990, when it invaded fellow-founder member Kuwait. A U.N. accord concluded on May 20 will allow it limited sales worth 2 billion U.S. dollars over six months to buy food and medicine.
OPEC was founded in Baghdad in 1960 with the goal of getting a better deal for Third World energy producers.
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