Oil powers Venezuela, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia, the top suppliers of oil to the United States, said Monday they would act jointly to face up to any Y2K interruptions in global oil supply.
But any supply disruption was "highly improbable," after extensive tests and simulations, the countries said in a joint statement from Caracas.
The trio added it was committed to guaranteeing a balanced market around the key date, when some computers risk malfunction.
The three exporters have emerged as key managers of global oil supply since early 1998 when they masterminded production cuts in response to the deepest price crash in decades.
As a result of the cuts, many countries have a large margin of unused capacity. But some other producers, notably Iraq, have done little to update their systems, which could misinterpret the change of year as a malfunction and shut down crucial operations.
Oil prices have more than doubled this year to nine-year highs as a result of the output cuts, which are scheduled to expire in March 2000.
Consumers are expected to stock up on fuel ahead of 31 December, while producers are filling inventories at home and abroad to ensure the availability of supplies in case of production problems.
Last week the US government said it was prepared to sell crude oil from its enormous Strategic Petroleum Reserve if a Y2K problem disrupted supply.
Reuters contributed to this report.
