Mistletoe & Egg Nog for the Oil Barons

[Montauk6]

OPEC said today that it planned to reduce its oil production by nearly 2 percent in February, the group’s second output cut in two months and its strongest signal yet that it aims to keep oil prices above $60 a barrel next year.

Representatives from OPEC nations agreed to pare their production to 25.8 million barrels a day, from 26.3 million barrels, starting on Feb. 1. The group had already agreed to cut its production by 4 percent in October to prop up prices.

“I hope the market appreciates we are working so diligently to bring supply and demand in balance, to have inventories at a reasonable level so that we do not have gyrations,” Ali Al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, told reporters at the meeting, held in Abuja, Nigeria.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which already accounts for 40 percent of the world’s oil exports, also said Angola would join the group next year, becoming its first new member since 1975. The addition of a second African country after Nigeria is a powerful boost to the OPEC, which currently has 11 members. Foreign oil companies have invested heavily in Angola in recent years and expect its production to grow dramatically in the coming decade.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/business/15opeccnd.html?ex=1323752400&en=5231338c0249500a&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss