- Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran have battled to get their candidates to succeed El-Badri as secretary-general
- OPEC's output ceiling is one million barrels below its current daily production
- Oil cartel anticipates demand for OPEC crude will contract to 29.7 million barrels per day.
VIENNA - OPEC on Wednesday maintained its oil output ceiling but had to reappoint Secretary-General Abdullah El-Badri to lead the cartel for another year after members failed to agree on a new leader.
As expected by markets, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its oil production ceiling at 30 million barrels per day (mbpd), with crude prices remaining at high levels ahead of an expected drop in OPEC demand next year.
"We will hold" output, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said after a ministerial meeting in Vienna, home to OPEC's headquarters.
The ministers also voted to keep Libyan El-Badri on for one more year after the cartel's 12 members failed to agree on a replacement for the secretary-general who had been due to stand down at the end of 2012 after two three-year terms.
"We extended [by] one year for the secretary-general," Naimi told journalists.
"We have an experienced secretary-general in position. Extending it one year is a very, very, very good decision," he went on. The new term begins on Jan. 1.
The world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, had been battling against Iraq and political foe Iran to have its candidate succeed El-Badri, who has steered the cartel through the financial crisis as its secretary-general since 2007.
"The secretary-general sets the tone and leads the organization as we go forward," Nigerian Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke had told reporters ahead of the decision to keep El-Badri.
