Several OPEC Nations Pledge Production Cut

GENEVA —  At least seven OPEC members pledged to make voluntary oil production cuts as a first step to force up prices, but no agreement was reached on binding reductions, the cartel’s president said today.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has been struggling for months over disputed production quotas for each member. Binding quotas are considered the only way of reducing output to reverse this year’s drastic fall in oil prices, which have dropped by $8 a barrel on some markets.

OPEC President Rilwanu Lukman said that seven or eight countries among the 13 cartel members had agreed to the voluntary cuts, totaling 1.6 million barrels a day, and that the others had not yet stated their position.

Will Meet Thursday

Lukman, the Nigerian oil minister, refused to say whether the countries that made the pledge on voluntary cuts will go ahead with the plan if the other members refuse to join them. The ministers adjourned their conference after a 90-minute session and agreed to meet Thursday.

Lukman refused to name the countries that have agreed to cut production, but OPEC sources said Saudi Arabia, the cartel’s main producer, is one of them.

Iraqi Oil Minister Kassim Ahmed Taki later told reporters that it would be unfair for OPEC to ask Iraq to reduce its oil output and said his nation would refuse to do so.

2 Members at War

Production agreements are considered especially difficult because OPEC members Iran and Iraq have been at war since September, 1980, and each rejects any proposals that they believe favor the other.

Non-OPEC members like Mexico, heavily dependent on export earnings from oil, have been hurt badly by the drop in oil prices caused by the production glut. A 42-gallon barrel of oil that went for $32 in December is now trading for as little as $8 on some markets.

Lukman said major non-OPEC oil producers had expressed willingness to go along with OPEC’s decision to reduce production voluntarily.