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Iran: Won't Stockpile Oil To Deter OPEC Cheaters

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)-- Iran has categorically ruled out the idea of creating a floating stockpile of crude oil to be used to deter cheating on output-restraint agreements by other members of OPEC, a senior Iranian official said Thursday.

H. Ghanimifard, director of international affairs at the state-owned National Iranian Oil Corp., also said in statement that Iran was calling for compliance with the current OPEC pact "at least until March 2000."

The statement came in response to published comments that Iran was planning to build such a stockpile.

Dow Jones' Energy Matters column Wednesday called such a move "ill-advised" and said oil prices would fall if reports emerged that Iran was boosting oil output to create such a stockpile. The column quoted a source at an OPEC state oil

company expressing concern on the matter, saying "everyone wants to know what they're really up to." Ghanimifard, who is in charge of marketing of crude oil and products at NIOC, said in the statement: "the NIOC categorically rules out any notion of establishing oil storage at sea with the aim of deterring violations from the latest OPEC accord.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran expressly doesn't endorse such a policy. We call for compliance with the recent OPEC pact at least until March 2000."

In agreements reached in 1998 and in March of this year, members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties and

some non-OPEC oil exporters have agreed to cut supplies to the market by about 5 million barrels a day in order to lift prices from 12-year lows.

The current OPEC accord runs through March 2000. OPEC next meets Sept. 22 in Vienna, and it's widely expected that ministers won't make any changes to the current pact.

Iran 's support of the pact "at least until March 2000" echoes a joint statement issued earlier Thursday from the oil ministers of Algeria and Libya.

"In view of the fact that oil stocks are still high...all OPEC member countries should strictly continue to abide by their production allocations as a prerequisite for market stability and continuation of price improvement," the statement from these two ministers said. Algeria's Oil Minister, Yousef Yousfi, also serves as the current OPEC president.

Last Friday, OPEC's Ministerial Monitoring Subcommittee, which is led by Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, after reviewing the market, issued a statement calling for compliance with output-restraint accords at least through March 2000.

The subcommittee also noted that the price of the basket of seven crudes tracked by OPEC is averaging below $14 a barrel this year, which is below the 1997 average level of $18.68.

In the latest week, the OPEC basket averaged $18.90, compared with $11.08 in the first quarter and $15.38 in the second quarter.

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