Relaxation of OPEC limitations on oil production will hardly decrease the prices noticeably - FT

/IRBIS, March 21, 00/ - PRIME-TASS informs, with the reference to The Financial Times, that relaxation of OPEC limitations on oil production will hardly decrease the prices noticeably. It is expected that limitations on oil production will be relaxed on coming OPEC meeting. It is believed to be the easiest way as new agreement on quotas will not be made. March 1999 relaxation of the limitations caused the production to jump 1.1 mln barrels a day from the second quarter of 2000 in addition to current overproduction and manipulations with quotas. The price of Brent blend is expected to reach $26.5 per barrel in the second and third quarters of 2000 if this holds true. And it may jump further at $30 per barrel as winter gets closer and demand begins to grow, said the experts at The Centre for Global Energy Studies (London). If June 1998 limitations will be eased production will jump another 1 mln barrels a day, is said. And the price may fall down to $21.4 per barrel by the fourth quarter of this year and down to $24.4 per barrel for the year as a whole. Experts believe that OPEC will increase the production not that much as the market expects, considering the big growth excessive.