OPEC Holds Steady With Target Output

OPEC left its crude-oil production ceiling intact, despite recent signs that a recovering world economy might pressure the group to open its spigots next year.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its targeted oil output rate at 24.85 million barrels a day at a meeting Saturday. The group, which disclosed that its next meeting would be in June in Vienna, has held its quotas steady at this level since late 2008, when they were scaled back by 15% in the middle of the global recession. Despite their stated target, OPEC actually produces 29 million barrels of oil a day, about a third of the world's output.

There is "no change," said OPEC President Wilson Pastor, who is also Ecuador's oil minister.

Oil prices in the past week flirted with $90 a barrel after rising 23% since late August. OPEC's wait-and-see approach sets the stage for heightened fears that high oil prices could undermine a fragile economic recovery in developed economies.

For now, however, there is no reason to panic, the world's top oil ministers say, despite crude's recent climb above the trading band of $70-$80 a barrel that Saudi Arabia, the world's No. 1 crude-oil exporter, advocates.

"Why do you want to disturb the market?" said Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali Naimi. "The market is in balance. Everybody is happy." (more)