OPEC announced Thursday it was keeping its oil output ceiling unchanged but vowed to eliminate overproduction as it sought to halt falling oil prices amid a weak global economy and eurozone debt crisis.
"Member countries should adhere to the production ceiling of 30 mbpd [million barrels per day]," agreed in December, the cartel said in a statement read out at a press conference following the meeting.
"They know they are producing 31.6 mbpd, and they have been asked to reduce the 1.6," Abdullah El-Badri, the secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), added.
Members Agree to Reduction
"The countries that are participating in 1.6 [mbpd], we will not mention them, they will come back to 30 mbpd. They agree. This is a collective decision," he said.
Kingpin Saudi Arabia recently ramped up production amid divisions between OPEC members, who together pump one third of the world's oil, over how to respond to plunging prices and uncertainties over global energy demand.
"Stocks are very high and we have 58 days forward cover," El-Badri told journalists Thursday.
"The market is very well supplied. That's why we made this decision."
In its statement, OPEC noted that: "Downside risks facing the global economy... continue to mount."
"Ongoing challenges to world economic recovery, coupled with the presence of ample supply of crude in the market, have led to the marked and steady fall in oil prices," it added.
The price of Brent crude oil has tumbled from $128 a barrel in early March to $96, mainly on expectations of weaker demand caused by the euro's troubles and a slowing Chinese economy.
"We discussed intensively the situation of the market, the economic situation in the eurozone, the overproduction in the market, and the most important thing is that we decided to maintain the ceiling of OPEC production," Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told journalists as he left.
