OPEC oil producing countries have reached a "consensus" to hold crude output unchanged, Kuwait''s oil minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah said ahead of Wednesday night''s meeting of the cartel. "There is a consensus" to hold output steady, as widely predicted by ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Sheikh Ahmad told reporters.
Ahead of the meeting most ministers gave an upbeat view of the oil market, saying crude prices were acceptably high and that a further cut in output was unlikely.
Arriving in Vienna on Wednesday evening for the meeting, Iraq''s oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani said the market appeared appeared "well-supplied." "I don''t think there will be a need really to revise our previous decision" on output cuts, he told reporters.
Ministers said they would seek instead to press for greater compliance by members with the hefty cuts agreed in late 2008, which were aimed at propping up crumbling prices. OPEC, whose 12 members pump 40 percent of the world''s oil, agreed in late 2008 to remove a massive 4.2 million barrels of daily output from the market.