Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Mon, Feb 17 1992 Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 06:46:35 EST Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update Feb. 17, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network OPEC AGREES TO NEW CEILING: OPEC nations, meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, agreed Saturday to lower the cartel's production ceiling to 23 million barrels a day, down from 23.7 million barrels, in an attempt to drive oil prices higher. However not all of the members of the 13-nation cartel are happy with the accord. Saudi Arabia immediately said it would not observe the limit. And Iran said the ceiling was too high. (For more, see special OPEC package below.) OIL PRICES DOWN: Oil prices settled lower in choppy trading Friday. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in March, which jumped 41 cents a barrel, fell 22 cents to settle at $19.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, North Sea Brent Blend crude oil for delivery in March settled at $18.43 per barrel, off 7 cents, at the International Petroleum Exchange. REFINED PRODUCTS FALL SHARPLY: Refined petroleum products fell sharply Friday at the Mercantile Exchange. Home heating oil for delivery in March settled at 54.49 cents, off 1.20 cents a gallon. Unleaded gasoline for delivery in March settled at 57.48 cents a gallon, down 1.15 cent. Natural gas prices fell, with contracts for delivery in March settling at $1.079 per 1,000 cubic feet, down 3.6 cents. ENERGY PRICES SLIDE IN JAN.: Led by a 7% plunge in gasoline prices and an even larger 16.9% decline in home heating oil costs, wholesale prices fell 0.3% in January, the biggest drop in 10 months, the Labor Department said Friday. The decline in the producer price index showed the weak economy holding prices down. Prices for natural gas and electricity were down by smaller amounts. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION OFF: Production at U.S. factories, mines and utilities fell a steep 0.9% in January, the biggest slowdown in 11 months, the Federal Reserve said Friday. January industrial production figures showed a 0.7% decline in consumer goods output, a 0.2% fall in mining activity and a 0.4% decline in production among utility companies. PENALTY PROPOSED FOR PGE: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has notified Portland General Electric Co. of a proposed $100,000 civil penalty for violations of federal regulatory requirements at the Trojan Nuclear Plant. The violations stem from PGE's failure to take corrective action for problems identified in previous NRC inspections at the plant. PGE says it agrees with the NRC's findings. LEVEL III VIOLATION CITED: Violations of NRC requirements are classified into five severity levels. Level I is the most severe and Level 5 the least. The violation for which the civil penalty is being imposed is Level III. PGE will pay the civil penalty within the required 30 days. In the same report, the NRC also notified PGE of a Level IV violation involving health physics procedures at Trojan. CREWS RESPOND TO RIVER SPILL: Emergency response teams placed booms along Oil Creek in Indianapolis Sunday after an unknown amount of oil that leaked from a Marathon Oil Co. refinery traveled four miles downstream. Environmental officials were on the scene. The spill didn't imperil the public, officials said. SPILL SEEN AS NO BIG DEAL: A barge carrying 18,000 gallons of fuel oil sank Sunday in New Bedford Harbor, Mass. Officials said the harbor is already a Superfund cleanup site and the spill won't add greatly to pollution problems. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON OPEC: SAUDIS REFUSE ADDITIONAL CUT: OPEC nation's agreed to lower the cartel's production ceiling to 23 million barrels a day. Estimates have had the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries producing 24.2 million barrels a day, so the new ceiling would mean a cut of about 1.2 million barrels. Saudi Arabia agreed to cut output by 500,000 barrels but refused to drop another 100,000 barrels as called for in the agreement. OPEC WANTS $21 A BARREL PRICE: Iran also criticized the new agreement. Indonesian Oil Minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita acknowledged that countries were unhappy with the accord. But, he said, "this is the best we could do at this juncture." Iranian Oil Minister Gholamreza Aqazadeh predicted that the new ceiling would still put too much oil in the market to reach the cartel's goal of driving up prices to $21 a barrel. REACHING TARGET NOT EXPECTED: "We are not going to get $21 a barrel," Ginandjar agreed. "But it will arrest the downturn in prices and even (give) a slight increase." Paul Mlotok, head of energy research at Morgan Stanley in New York, said prices could fall a bit on word of the accord. "It's certainly not going to move them anywhere near the target price," he said. SAUDIS WANT TO KEEP UP OUTPUT: OPEC members agreed to meet again April 24 to review the market and change the accord if necessary. Saudi Arabia was given a new quota of 7.9 million barrels a day, but it said it would instead pump 8 million barrels a day. The kingdom insisted during the talks on retaining its one-third share OPEC's output. Saudi Arabia's share of cartel production shot up during the gulf war. (End of package.) Energy Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. 08:0002170000D0217 HEAL-R P Prostate-cancer-data-reported......... A D0217 This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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