Saudis will fight to keep $34 price, oil official says

By Compiled From Wire Service Dispatches With Analysis From Monitor Correspondents Around The World; Edited By Anne Collier

December 8, 1982

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ahmad Zaki Yamani was quoted Tuesday as saying the kingdom will defend OPEC's oil reference price of $34 a barrel as a nonnegotiable issue at this month's OPEC meeting.

The Saudi Gazette quoted Sheikh Yamani as saying, ''This is our position. We want to defend the $34 benchmark.'' The paper said the official told it he had been misquoted in a recent Kuwaiti newspaper article that suggested Saudi Arabia was willing to discuss lowering the $34 benchmark.