INTERNATIONAL

Warning of OPEC Oversupply: OPEC seems set to allow so much crude onto the world market early next year that prices may not remain stable, Algeria warned at a meeting in Vienna. Remarks by Algeria’s energy minister, Nordine Ait Laoussine, after two days of talks by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries echoed comments by American oil analysts, who said oil prices could be on a downward trend over the next few months. Analysts argued that Western consumers, with high inventories, had broadly covered their needs for the winter, while the market had discounted the risk of a breakdown in Soviet exports. Laoussine said overall world crude stocks are higher now than at the end of 1990, and cited the market perceptions of weakening prices in the second quarter of 1992.