Lagos expected to restore price

Press, 26 October 1984, Page 8

Lagos expected to restore price

NZPA-Reuter Lagos The Saudi Oil Minister, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, said yesterday that he expected Nigeria, which broke ranks with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries by cutting oil prices, to raise its prices again “in the near future”. His seven-hour visit to Lagos, in which he pressed Nigeria to reverse last week’s cuts of up to ?US2 a barrel, apparently brought no immediate change in the country’s oil prices. “I am confident Nigeria will bring up its prices in the near future,” he told .a news conference after talks with the Nigerian leader, Major-General Muhammad Buhari, and its Oil Minister, Professor Tam David-West.

Professor David-West said only that Nigeria would put its case to a meeting of O.P.E.C. Ministers in Geneva on Monday. Oil price cuts by Norway and Britain, which are not O.P.E.C. members, prompted Nigeria to reduce its own prices last Thursday. Industry sources said earlier that Nigeria was sticking to its price cuts, which Professor David-West said were vital if the cashstrapped nation was to hold on to customers for oil, which provides 95 per cent of its foreign earnings.

Sheikh Yamani will fly to Oslo today in an attempt to persuade Norway to fall into line on oil pricing and production levels. Norwegian Energy Ministry sources said that Sheikh Yamani was probably visiting Norway instead of is a much

more important North Sea oil producer, because Norway’s price cut was flexible and could be reversed. ' Energy analysts in Lagos said it would be a big triumph for him if, he could persuade Norway to increase its price, and thus pressure Britain to do the same.

The O.P.E.C. meeting will decide the size of the production cuts. Sheikh Yamani expressed confidence that concerted action on output by producers would push world oil prices up to the official O.P.E.C. level of SUS 29 a barrel. With European spot market prices well below official levels, Norway and Britain lowered their prices last week between 5U51.35 and 5U51.60 a barrel and Nigeria, which markets a comparable crude oil, moved quickly to undercut them.