Quito, March 12: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries anticipates no change in oil production quotas at its next meeting, the cartel’s head said Thursday, predicting prices would remain within a 70 to 80 dollar range.
“At the next OPEC meeting, changes in policy will not be necessary,” said Ecuadoran Oil Minister Germanico Pinto, the cartel’s president, referring to a meeting Tuesday in Vienna.
He added that the US and global economic recoveries will result in increased demand for oil, but that it would not be reflected in higher prices.
Instead, he said prices would remain stable at a “reasonable level” of between 70 and 80 dollars a barrel.
OPEC’s production ceiling was set at 24.8 million barrels a day in January 2009 after oil prices collapsed in the wake of the global economic crisis, and Pinto stressed it would remain unchanged.
OPEC’s 12 member countries supply 40 percent of the world’s crude oil.
—Agencies