Relaxed OPEC ministers insisted today that they would leave oil production ceilings unchanged at a meeting in Vienna later this week and would wait instead for concrete signs of a recovery in global demand.
Rebuffing consumer pressure to open the oil taps to bring down prices at the pump, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries energy chiefs said there was no reason at least for the third quarter of the year.
OPEC slashed production last year to haul prices out of a slump triggered by the global economic slowdown and the September 11 attacks in the US and says demand is still too fragile for it to raise output.
Oil prices have edged up slightly even as the energy chiefs gather, anticipating the 'no-change' decision by the cartel, which produces over 30% of the world's crude.
Some ministers are however expected to urge their counterparts to respect their production quotas more closely. Analysts say the producer group is pumping about one million barrels of oil a day above its combined ceiling.
OPEC slashed output quotas by about 20% last year to staunch a slide in crude prices triggered by a severe post-September 11 economic downturn, especially in the oil-guzzling US. With prices within their target range, the Arab-dominated grouping has ruled out an oil output hike for the third quarter.
A key element of OPEC's strategy last year was to persuade rival non-OPEC producers such as Russia and Norway to cut their production too. That certainly worked, but such rivals have said they will not continue their own curbs into the third quarter of the year.
The meeting is also expected to seek a candidate to replace Venezuelan Ali Rodriguez as OPEC secretary general. Rodriguez has been appointed to head his native country's state oil company after an aborted coup there. Officials say another Venezuelan is set to take his seat.
