EC WATCHING GULF WAR DEVELOPMENTS
  The European Community (EC) should
  watch very carefully for any developments in the Gulf War and
  their consequences on the oil market, EC Energy Commissioner
  Nicolas Mosar said today.
      Speaking two weeks after a U.S. warship was attacked in the
  Gulf, Mosar warned, "An escalation in the Gulf would increase
  tensions in the oil market."
      "But I do not want to be alarmist," he told a news conference
  after an EC energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
      He said the volume of EC oil imports from the Gulf had
  declined to around 31 pct of total oil imports in the first
  three months of 1987 against 35 pct in the same period last
  year. "There are also other potential sources of supplies in the
  world," he added.
      The issue of Gulf oil imports was not discussed at the
  ministers' meeting, he added.
      A EC committee of national experts in the so-called oil
  supply group would discuss Gulf oil supplies at their bi-annual
  meeting on June 19, he said.
      But any major decisions would have to be reserved for EC
  foreign ministers, diplomats said.
      West European nations have so far shown little enthusiasm
  for backing a U.S. plan to give military protection to merchant
  ships in the Gulf which could help insure the safety of oil
  supplies.
  

