South Korea had expected to fully deregulate its refining industry by January 1999, but it decided to move up the date in order to help reform its economy. (DJ) October 7: European Union (EU) nations approve an accord in which European car makers will voluntarily agree to cut carbon dioxide emissions 25 percent by 2008. EU officials say they will seek similar deals with automakers in Asia and North America. (WP) October 28: Japan's Nippon Oil Company, the country's second largest petroleum distributor and Mitsubishi Oil Company, the sixth-ranking company in the industry, agree to merge as of April 1, 1999. The combined company will be the largest oil distributor in Japan. (WSJ) December 2: Exxon Corporation agrees to buy Mobil Corporation for approximately $75.4 billion, which will make the company the largest corporation in the U.S. The companies say they expect to cut about 9,000 jobs from their combined worldwide workforce of 122,700 and to close offices, saving $730 million. The merger comes in the context of low oil prices, which have hurt profits at many oil companies. (DJ) December 23: The Colombian government says it will allow gasoline and diesel prices to float with international oil prices starting January 1, 1999. The move will end a system of artificial price fixing which has cost the government more than $3.2 billion in subsidies over the past five years. (DJ) Sources Energy Information Administration: Chronology of World Oil Market Events Commodity Research Bureau. The CRB Commodity Yearbook 1998, 1998. |- | width="30%" align="center" | previous year:1997 world oil market chronology | width="40%" align="center" | This article is part of theChronology of world oil market events (1970-2005) | width="30%" align="center" | following year:1999 world oil market chronology |- Oil market timelines World oil market chronology World Oil Market Chronology, 1998