U.S. oil demand as measured by products supplied rose 0.6 pct in the four weeks ended April 17 to 15.91 mln barrels per day (bpd) from 15.82 mln in the same period a year ago, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. In its weekly petroleum status report, the Energy Department agency said distillate demand was off 10.2 pct in the period to 2.67 mln bpd from 2.98 mln a year earlier.

The Dutch Central Bank intervened modestly to support the dollar with spot market transactions, dealers said. They said the bank bought dollars against guilders as the U.S. Currency dipped to a low of 2.0013 guilders from 2.0130-40 on opening, the lowest since the end of January. There was no intervention at the fix, however, which put the dollar at 2.0045 guilders after 2.0280 last Friday, and dealers said the Bank’s buying was limited.

An International Sugar Organization (ISO) committee discussed the terms of a new administrative International Sugar Agreement but did not debate the most controversial area of budget contributions, delegates said. Progress was made in a number of technical areas, but with one of the main importers, the Soviet Union, unable to attend because of prior commitments, the distribution of votes and contributions was not raised, an ISO spokesman said. Delegates said private meetings are also taking place between the main participants to discuss the details of the new agreement.

Britain is not considering any restriction of its present oil production, UK Energy Minister Alick Buchanan-Smith said. Speaking to reporters at the Offshore Technology Conference, Buchanan-Smith said, “No, we’ve made that absolutely clear, we see no reason for changing (the production level).” Earlier today, Buchanan-Smith gave the go-ahead to Mobil Corp for two new North Sea developments – the Ness oil field and Beryl B subsea water injection project – totalling 96 mln dlrs (60 mln British pounds).

The Soviet government said economic results achieved in the first three months of the year were unsatisfactory, the official news agency Tass said. Soviet industrial production from January to March grew by 2.5 per cent compared with the same period last year, but fell short of its target by 0.8 percent, official statistics showed. “The Council of Ministers (government) emphasised that the results did not meet the Communist Party’s exacting demands for the radical reconstruction of the economy,” Tass said.

French producers have withdrawn all offers to sell more than 700,000 tonnes of sugar into European Community intervention stocks, EC Commission sources said. They also said West German producers had now withdrawn the last 3,000 of the 79,250 tonnes they sold into EC stores on April 1. The sales were made to protest against the level of export restitutions being granted for sugar at weekly EC tenders. Last Friday, commission sources said the West German producers had withdrawn all but 3,000 tonnes of their sales.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Central Bank Governor Abdel Malik al-Hamar said any changes in the UAE"s exchange rate policy would be carried out in conjunction with other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. In a speech opening a seminar on Arab exchange rate policies, he noted the UAE had not changed the value of the dirham against the U.S. Dollar since 1980 despite wide fluctuations in the latter"s value against other currencies.

Sterile screwworm flies will be released this weekend in Miami, Florida, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to combat a potential outbreak of screwworms, a serious pest of livestock, the Agriculture Department said. The action follows identification April 21 of screwworm larvae in a hunting dog which passed through airports in Miami and Albuquerque while being returned to the United States from Venezuela, it said. Sexually sterilized screwworm flies will be released twice a week for six weeks in an effort to eradicate any breeding populations of the flies.

Indonesian Energy minister Subroto said he was very confident of continued stability in the oil market because of the determination of Opec members to maintain a price of 18 dlrs a barrel. “We are very confident that things will continue this way. The short-term outlook is favourable because of the resolution of Opec to stick to the 18 dlr price,” he said at a signing ceremony for a new Indonesian production sharing agreement.

A leading regional banker said that it was axiomatic that despite market intervention, a country’s currency will eventually fall to an exchange rate which balances its international trade and payments accounts. John Medlin, president and chief executive officer for the First Wachovia Corp, said that “substantial and rapid currency devaluations usually are followed in time by surging price inflation, spiralling interest rates and painful economic austerity.” Speaking to a banking trade group, he also said the peak of debt writeoff has not yet been reached.