SAUDI ARABIA REITERATES COMMITMENT TO OPEC PACT
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Hisham Nazer
reiterated the kingdom's commitment to last December's OPEC
accord to boost world oil prices and stabilise the market, the
official Saudi Press Agency SPA said.
    Asked by the agency about the recent fall in free market
oil prices, Nazer said Saudi Arabia "is fully adhering by the
... Accord and it will never sell its oil at prices below the
pronounced prices under any circumstance."
    Nazer, quoted by SPA, said recent pressure on free market
prices "may be because of the end of the (northern hemisphere)
winter season and the glut in the market."
    Saudi Arabia was a main architect of the December accord,
under which OPEC agreed to lower its total output ceiling by
7.25 pct to 15.8 mln barrels per day (bpd) and return to fixed
prices of around 18 dlrs a barrel.
    The agreement followed a year of turmoil on oil markets,
which saw prices slump briefly to under 10 dlrs a barrel in
mid-1986 from about 30 dlrs in late 1985. Free market prices
are currently just over 16 dlrs.
    Nazer was quoted by the SPA as saying Saudi Arabia's
adherence to the accord was shown clearly in the oil market.
    He said contacts among members of OPEC showed they all
wanted to stick to the accord.
    In Jamaica, OPEC President Rilwanu Lukman, who is also
Nigerian Oil Minister, said the group planned to stick with the
pricing agreement.
    "We are aware of the negative forces trying to manipulate
the operations of the market, but we are satisfied that the
fundamentals exist for stable market conditions," he said.
    Kuwait's Oil Minister, Sheikh Ali al-Khalifa al-Sabah, said
in remarks published in the emirate's daily Al-Qabas there were
no plans for an emergency OPEC meeting to review prices.
    Traders and analysts in international oil markets estimate
OPEC is producing up to one mln bpd above the 15.8 mln ceiling.
    They named Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, along with
the much smaller producer Ecuador, among those producing above
quota. Sheikh Ali denied that Kuwait was over-producing.
 REUTER
