If they do get credit for those early reductions, how might that credit be measured?

These followed an earlier sharp reduction in death rates.

The cuts follow the earlier reduction of 11,600 jobs last year, when the service lost about $1.7 billion.

These early reductions would be "banked" for use in the post-2007 period of analysis.

The cartel is waiting for its earlier reduction in output, of one million a barrels a day effective Sept. 1, to take hold.

The new round of staff cuts comes on top of earlier reductions that had cut the newsroom from 62 to 40 people.

In the 1992 quarter, the company took a $46.5 million charge for early reduction of debt.

This comes on top of an earlier reduction last year of 3 million barrels a day.

It was also told to plan for an early reduction in strength and disestablishment, the latter expected to occur within a year.

As a result of those and earlier reductions, the firm's compensation expenses fell 19 percent from a year ago, to $2.2 billion.