OPEC decides to stick to current output ceiling 

www.channelnewsasia.com First created : 12 March 2003 0853 hrs (SST) 0053 hrs (GMT) Last modified : 12 March 2003 0853 hrs (SST) 0053 hrs (GMT)

Members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have agreed to stick with their current quotas for crude oil production.

But the cartel promised to boost output in the future to keep supplies flowing in case of any serious disruption, such as might be caused by war in Iraq.Advertisement OPEC's president, Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, confirmed that the cartel was not changing its output target of 24.5 million barrels a day and said delegates planned to meet on June 11 in Doha, Qatar, to review market conditions.

The decision was announced on Tuesday at the end of the OPEC ministers' meeting at the group's headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

They ruled out formally raising output now as a way of reassuring nervous markets before any US-led attack on Iraq.

However, they took extreme care not to mention such a conflict as a likely source of disruption, apparently afraid of seeming to support such a war simply by preparing to respond to its possible impact on markets.

Despite sharply higher oil prices, OPEC members argued that the world has enough crude to meet demand.

Since January, crude prices have skyrocketed due to fears of a war on Iraq, which has the world's second-largest proven oil reserves after Saudi Arabia, and a general strike in Venezuela, which crippled production there at the start of the year.