Tanker shortage possible if more oil agreed: Kuwait

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Tanker shortage possible if more oil agreed: Kuwait ..........KUWAIT (September 14) : Kuwait's finance minister said it was unclear whether there would be enough crude oil tankers to lift additional supplies if producers bowed to consumer pressure for another rise in output.

.........."Industrialised nations are asking for a production increase without knowing if there are enough tankers to lift the additional crude," Al-Watan newspaper on Wednesday quoted Finance Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah as saying.

..........Sheikh Ahmad added that Western nations were wrong to blame the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for high oil prices. .........."We are not the reason behind the high rise in oil prices, but the reasons are psychological, a rise in demand and the inability to market (products)," he said.

..........The minister said that despite the rise in revenues for the Opec member, Kuwait will continue to keep its spending in check. ..........Kuwaiti crude has averaged above $26 a barrel since the start of the current July-March fiscal period, compared with $13 a barrel used to calculate budget revenues.

..........The average price for the last July-June fiscal year was almost $23, compared with a budgeted $10 a barrel. "When the price of a barrel reached seven dollars, did anyone ask about us? Is it legitimate for them (industrialised nations) but not for us?...especially that they are expecting the price of a barrel to reach $40," Sheikh Ahmad added.

..........Following this week's Opec agreement, Kuwait now has a quota of 2.101 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 2.037 million bpd.-Reuters

http://www.brecorder.com/story/S00DD/SDI14/SDI14259.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 13, 2000

Answers

That's what I've been curious about for some time, whether or not there would be enough tankers to transport all that additional oil. They were talking about a possible tanker shortage a year ago.

-- Nancy7 (nancy7@hotmail.com), September 13, 2000.

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