Oil prices above $32 in Asia .........

.SINGAPORE (October 4) : Oil prices in Asia held above $32 a barrel in Asia on Tuesday, after a price surge in New York fuelled by heightened tensions between Iraq and Kuwait.

..........Benchmark New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) November crude futures were $32.08 per barrel, cutting just 10 cents from the $1.34 gain in New York trading on Monday.

..........Monday's rally was sparked by renewed tension between Opec members Iraq and Kuwait, who have accused one another of stealing the other's oil and the European Union's failure to agree on whether or not to release oil stocks into the market.

..........The rally followed two weeks of declines after Nymex reached a 10-year peak of $37.80 on September 20.

..........Kuwait accused Baghdad of stealing large quantities through a pipeline laid during Iraq's 1990-91 invasion of Kuwait.

..........Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet and Parliament Affairs Muhammad Sharar, speaking after the government's weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, said Kuwait had satellite pictures and field evidence to back up its claim.

..........On Saturday, Kuwait had asked the United Nations to take urgent steps to end the threatening behaviour of Iraq towards its Gulf neighbours.

..........Last month, Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi oil from a border field and vowed to take unspecified measures.

..........Kuwait has strongly denied the charge. The United States, the emirate's main political and military ally, warned Iraq it would use force if Baghdad threatened its Gulf Arab neighbours.

..........The threat of extra oil supplies within the EU has been put on hold at least until the middle of October when regional leaders are expected to make a decision on releasing reserves at a meeting in Biarritz.

..........The EU debate follows a move by the United States to release 30 million barrels of its 571 million-barrel reserve oil during October to try to take the heat out of prices.

..........Worries over a supply shortage heading into winter plague the US, which consumes a fifth of world oil. Heating oil stocks in the US North-east, the biggest regional user of the commodity, are down 70 percent from last year.-Reuters

http://www.brecorder.com/story/S00DD/SDJ04/SDJ04183.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 04, 2000