1.   Asked if there was much uncertainty about the final outcome when OPEC oil ministers meet here on Monday, the official firmly shook his head.

2.   At an OPEC meeting in Vienna last year, he was still meeting oil ministers from nations like Libya and Iraq.

3.   Aghazadeh met today with Libyan oil minister Abdalla Salem El-Badri and Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources Dan Etete.

4.   Ali Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, suggested last week that members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should start reducing their production.

5.   But many oil ministers have themselves been baffled by the extent to which prices have remained high.

6.   But Zanganeh, the Iranian oil minister, said he would agree to a larger cut.

7.   El-Badri and Aghazadeh were the first of the OPEC oil ministers to arrive for the meeting.

8.   Etiebet, a former oil minister, resigned from his own party and joined the increasingly powerful United Nigeria Congress Party.

9.   Even that may not be doable in practice, even if on paper the oil ministers scrape together a face-saving compromise later this month.

10.   He noted that the Mexican oil minister said Wednesday in Paris that he favored a production increase.