Satisfied with prices, OPEC to keep oil output steady (1st Lead)

Sep 9, 2009, 20:17 GMT

Vienna - Oil ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Wednesday in Vienna they were happy with current price levels and would not change present output quotas.

'The price is perfect,' Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters at the outset of the cartel's meeting.

On Wednesday, the benchmark WTI brand of crude oil for October delivery traded above 71 dollars per barrel in New York, about double the price of late last year, when crude markets plummeted amid the global financial crisis.

OPEC's basket price stood at 67.83 dollars per barrel Tuesday, one barrel equalling 159 litres.

Even countries like Iran that normally push for production cuts to finance their national economies expressed support to leave quotas where they are.

'Given the fact that demand is depressed, and also stocks are at a high level, although there is some sign of improvement in the economic situation, it seems that it would be much better to wait and see how the situation develops,' Iran's oil minister Massoud Mirkazemi said.

So far, the oil cartel's 12 member states have implemented only around 70 per cent of cuts totalling 4.2 million barrels per day, which they decided on last year.

OPEC, which produces a third of the world's oil, aims to raise that level to 75 per cent.

In July, the group pumped 26.69 million barrels per day, 160,000 barrels more than in June. Most of the increase came from Angolan, Iraqi and Saudi Arabian oil fields.

The Vienna-based organization was expected to make the outcome of their meeting public at around 2330 GMT, owing to the Muslim Ramadan fasting season.

While the cartel is aiming to reduce currently high oil stocks around the world, non-member Russia is increasing its oil exports and has overtaken OPEC member Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil exporter, Russian newspaper Vremya Novostei reported.