Mideast fighting prompts 3 in OPEC to skip cuts

International Energy Agency officials say Kuwait, Venezuela, and the United Arab Emirates, which together produce about 5.7 million barrels of oil daily, have quietly said that because of the Iraqi-Iranian fighting they will not go ahead with a 10 percent cut in crude oil production agreed to at an oil ministers meeting in Vienna. Saudi Arabia, OPEC's biggest producer and the world's biggest oil exporter at 9.5 million barrels daily, never said it would join in the cut, and IEA sources say the Saudis may even raise production if needed. Libya, however, plans to go ahead with the cut.