VOL. XLI

No. 08

23-February-1998

IRAN

Iran's NIOC Shifts Marketing Focus West As Eastern Buyers Back Out Crude Purchases

When Asia's beleaguered refiners failed to step up to the plate at the beginning ofthis year, the attention of crude marketers in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait quicklyshifted from east to west in an attempt to find outlets for quota-driven productionincreases. It now appears that Iran, which has no extra oil to sell and is hard-pressed tomaintain output at last year's...