OPEC sticks to current output level

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided on Thursday at its ordinary meeting to keep the present oil output level steady.

Facing predictions of strong crude oil demand due to the coming driving season, the oil cartel will continue to comply with the existing output quotas in its Member Countries, and try to keep the prices "stable, sustainable and acceptable to producers and consumers."

Some oil ministers had said before the meeting that in their opinions 60 U.S. dollars would be a reasonable level for the crude oil prices, while some others set the benchmark a little higher.

Moreover, HE Mohamed Bin Dhaen Al Hamli, President of the Conference and Minister of Energy of the United Arab Emirates, expressed worries about the U.S. dollars' drop in the meeting, and he said "we remain concerned about the continuing weakness of the U.S. dollar against other major currencies."

Furthermore, some latest report said after the continuing slides of oil prices in the last five trading days, oil prices held finally above 58 dollars per barrel again on Thursday, mainly due to the decision by the group to keep its production level unchanged.

Ten member countries, without Iraq and the new OPEC member Angola, slashed its combined output by 1.2 million bpd from Nov. 1 last year, and subsequently, the oil cartel decided again to cut its production by a further 500,000 bpd from Feb. 1.

However, according to some official estimates, in fact, those 10 countries pumped still about 26.5 million bpd last month, 0.7 million bpd more than the cartel's target.

The oil minister of Angola attended the ordinary meeting for the first time as head of delegation of a full OPEC member. In the meantime, oil minister of Egypt and high-level representatives from the Non-OPEC countries, such as Mexico, Oman and Russia, were also present at the meeting this time.

The oil cartel's next ordinary meeting is scheduled for Sept. 11, 2007 in Vienna again and OPEC's head of research Hussein Qabazard said if the world economy, oil demand and other factors adversely remain changed, then the group would like to meet again earlier.

Source: Xinhua