Vienna: OPEC, the oil producing cartel, will likely stick by its output ceiling at a meeting here, member nations on Wednesday indicated as they expressed satisfaction with current high crude prices.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps out about one third of the world's oil, has stood by a daily production ceiling of 30 million barrels for almost three years.
OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, the cartel's biggest and most influential producer, declared today that he expected no change to oil output levels. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, speaking on the eve of the meeting, said the market was "stable and balanced" and that he therefore believed there would not be any decision to change output.
"The price is at a comfortable level for producer and consumer countries as well as for the oil industry," Naimi said.
While OPEC appears satisfied with current price levels at around USD 100 a barrel, the cartel is in fact pumping below its collective target owing to abundant supplies in top crude consumer the United States.
Offsetting this to a large extent are worries of potential supply strains as Ukraine risks sliding into all-out civil war.
"Current oil prices are positive for... All producers and customers," Libya's acting oil minister, Omar al-Shakmak, told reporters today in Vienna, home to OPEC headquarters.
He also joined oil ministers from OPEC members Angola, Ecuador, Iraq, Kuwait and Venezuela in hinting at no change to the ceiling being made at tomorrow's meeting. "There are indications that there will be a rollover," Iraqi Oil Minister Abdelkarim al-Luaybi said today.
Luaybi also revealed that Nigeria had nominated its oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, to succeed OPEC's long-standing secretary-general Abdullah El-Badri.
A vote was not due until December, while Nigeria has yet to comment on the matter.
Global oil prices have meanwhile held above USD 100 a barrel this year, boosted by falling production from Libya, while Iran's output remains hit by Western sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme.
