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Oil prices move higher
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September 29, 2000: 3:27 p.m. ET
Crude futures advance after OPEC ministers wrap up anniversary summit
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Crude oil futures posted moderate gains Friday, stabilizing at current levels following the conclusion of an OPEC summit in Caracas, Venezuela.
In late trading, U.S. light sweet crude for November delivery rose 52 cents to $30.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. London's benchmark Brent gained 33 cents to $29.59.
Analysts said a risk factor was taken out of the market after Iraq vowed on Thursday not to disrupt its export sales of more than two million barrels per day. Traders feared Baghdad might halt or slow its crude oil exports if a  Kuwaiti claim for Gulf War compensation went through this week without any gesture toward Baghdad.
But those concerns eased after the five permanent United Nations Security Council powers, in approving a Kuwaiti claim for $15.9 billion in Iraqi compensation, agreed to reduce the rate of reparations Baghdad pays for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
That was enough of a concession to stop Iraq from wielding its powerful oil weapon. "We are not going to hold back supplies," Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said late Thursday at OPEC's summit in Caracas. "Iraq is not an opportunist ... Iraq has never held back oil supplies under any circumstances as long as it has the ability to (keep pumping)."
His comments helped alleviate market anxiety. "People had feared Iraq might reduce its production," said Ed Maran, oil analyst at A.G. Edwards. "That was one factor that was inflating the market."
OPEC concludes summit
Heads of state of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, rounding off a two-day summit in Venezuela to celebrate the cartel's 40th anniversary, laid the blame for high oil prices squarely on industrialized nations.
The producers' group, which pumps 40 percent of the world's oil output, denied it was endangering global economic growth and pointed the finger instead at high taxes on fuel.
"Excessive taxation on petroleum products accounts for the highest share of the final price to the consumers in the major consuming countries," OPEC said in a declaration issued as the summit drew to a close on Thursday.
It again called on consumer countries to reduce fuel taxes for the benefit of their citizens and the world economy.
-- Reuters contributed to this report 
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OPEC
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