P122 CEEFAX 122  Sun 19 Dec  14:43/11
   1/2 
  
  
  WORLD OIL PRICES 
                                        
 European oil trade analysts have s!id  
 that a reduction in crude oil prices,  
 even by $10 or more per "arrel, would  
 not revive current very slack demand.  
                                        
 Analysts expect the OPEC meeting in    
 Vienna on Sund!y to reach a compromise 
 agreement maintaining the existing     
 benchmark price for Saudi crude oil at 
 $34 a barrel, but prices are expected  
 to come under increasing pressure      
 towards the second quarter of 1983.    
                                        
 * Saudi Ara"ia's oil minister, Sheikh  
 Yamani, has said his country would not 
 be tied by the $34 price if oil price  
 differntials were not corrected.       
                                        
                                        
                                        
   P122 CEEFAX 122  Sun 19 Dec  14:42/33
   2/2 
  
  
  WORLD OIL PRICES 
                                        
 OPEC's market monitoring committee     
 chairman has said that, although the   
 oil cartel was undergoing hard times,  
 it would not cut prices.               
                                        
 RAE oil minister, Nana Saeed Oteiba,   
 said emphatically that OPEC was not    
 going to lower oil prices.             
                                        
 He added that the cartel was determined
 to defend the current market price of  
 $34 a barrel.                          
                                        
 * The market monitoring committee is   
 meeting in Vienna ahead of Sund!y's    
 full OPEC meeting.                     
                                        
  WORLD STOCK MARKETS 126 