Rodriguez convinced OPEC, non-OPEC will cut 2-mil b/d

OPEC Secretary-general Ali Rodriguez said Thursday he was convinced that the cartel and a group of independent producers would reach an agreement on oil output cuts totaling 2-mil b/d, according to Platts.

OPEC ministers meeting last week in Vienna said they would cut production by 1.5-mil b/d from January 1 if non-OPEC producers reciprocated with output cuts totaling 500,000 b/d. "I am convinced we will reach a final agreement between OPEC and non- OPEC producers...on 2-mil b/d," Rodriguez told Platts in a telephone interview.

Earlier Thursday, Russia's first deputy prime minister Viktor Khristyenko said Moscow intended to take extra measures to help stabilize world oil prices within a $20- $25/bbl range, that active consultations were taking place with OPEC and other non-OPEC countries and that he expected the situation to stabilize soon.

Rodriguez said he was encouraged by the latest statements from senior Russian government officials. "I believe, I am very convinced that the high authorities in Russia will understand perfectly the situation and will make a decision like that of 1999" to take action to stabilize oil prices, Rodriguez told Platts.

Rodriguez was speaking just ahead of Norway's announcement that its parliament had approved a cut of 100- 200,000 b/d, dependent on similar reductions by OPEC and other non-OPEC countries. Mexico has already announced it will cut supply by 100,000 b/d while Oman has yet to specify a volume. All eyes now are on Russia which Nov 12 offered a 30,000 b/d cut which OPEC saw as derisory. Khristyenko, while saying earlier Thursday that Moscow would act to defend oil prices, did not say definitively that Russia would make a larger cut.

Rodriguez would not speculate on the size of a potential cut in Russian production. Nor would he discuss whether OPEC might scale back the volume of its conditional 1.5-mil b/d cut if the volume agreed by non-OPEC producers, whether including or excluding Russia, amounted to less than the specified 500,000 b/d.

Some senior OPEC figures suggested after the Nov 12 ministerial conference that if Russia and other producers quickly came up with a collective 500,000 b/d, OPEC could implement its own 1.5-mil b/d cut before Jan 1. But Rodriguez said it was unlikely the group would implement the cut before the scheduled date, saying it was "not so easy to reduce production." Rodriguez also insisted that OPEC's cut would be distributed on a pro rata basis.(*)