That is the word from the OPEC cartel, which last week agreed to slice production by 1.5 million barrels per day in order to stabilise prices. However, the cuts were made on proviso that non-OPEC nations would make production cuts of 500,000 bpd.

Mexico, Norway and Oman have all agreed to contribute significant volumes to the cut, however, Russia seems determined to rebuff the cartel's call for much deeper production cuts. The world's second largest oil producer said it would trim output by 50,000 bpd, which is well below the 200,000 bpd cut OPEC believes is necessary from Russia to help stabilise oil prices. Last week, the benchmark Brent crude was trading at around $US19 bbl.

The situation for OPEC is so serious that Kuwait has warned that energy producers face a price crash of historic proportions. In addition, OPEC president Mr Chakib Kheli urged oil producing countries outside the cartel to make bigger cuts in production. "The total in production cuts announced so far by non-OPEC countries nears only 300,000 bpd and we are still awaiting more efforts from them," he said. "If the reduction is limited to only 1.5 million bpd, the price of crude will collapse and all producing countries will be losers."

A Russian official said his Government was still considering OPEC's appeal and would hold further talks with local oil companies next month. Russian oil executives have said more cuts are possible by December 10, a deadline the government and companies set for deciding 2002 production levels.

Oil producers have been struggling to cope with the dramatic drop in demand due to the slowing global economy and consequences of the New York terrorist attacks.