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OPEC meet unlikely to change oil output

11 October 2010 08:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA-Economics. OPEC is unlikely to change its oil output target when it meets in Vienna next week, delegates told Reuters on Sunday, while Qatar said current oil prices posed no harm to the global economy, Reuters UK reported.

The 12-member producer group meets on Oct. 14 and oil ministers’ comments ahead of the gathering suggested the outcome would be no change.

Speaking to reporters at a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council oil ministers in Kuwait, Qatar’s Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said "so far" he saw no change in OPEC’s output.

Another Gulf delegate, who asked not to be named, also said there was unlikely to be a change in the production target at the Vienna meeting.

"Stocks are a little bit high, the market is balanced, the price is good," the delegate told Reuters, with the proviso that it was still down to ministers to agree final policy at the OPEC meeting itself.

U.S. crude for November CLc1 settled at $82.66 a barrel on Friday, having gained 1.32 percent on the week.

"The current price is not harmful to the global economies," Qatar’s Attiyah later told Reuters.

On Saturday the United Arab Emirates’ oil minister Mohammed al-Hamli said there was still some oversupply in the market and he was unconcerned with oil prices above $80.

The oil price has stayed within a range of around $70-$85 a barrel for the past year -- judged by many in OPEC to be high enough for producers who need to invest and low enough not to damage the world’s economy.

OPEC has not officially changed production policy since December 2008 when it responded to a price crash and a recession with its deepest ever supply cut.

Though official policy is unchanged, members’ compliance with output targets slid to as low as 50 percent this year from 80 percent in April 2009.

In the last two months, compliance has risen slightly and reached 57 percent in September.