Vienna – Oil ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gathered in Vienna Thursday for a meeting at which production quotas were expected to remain untouched.
Ahead of the conference, several of the cartel’s 12 ministers said they would not lower production, as prices have been rising amid signs of global economic recovery.
Even hawkish Iranian Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari, whose government relies heavily on oil revenue, indicated there would be no change.
Since the group announced its latest cut last December, its basket price has gone up from 40.95 dollars per barrel (159 litres) to 60.75 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, OPEC announced Thursday.
Wednesday’s jump of 2.04 dollars came after the New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that the US consumer confidence index showed the biggest one-month gain since 2003.
OPEC, which produces over a third of the world’s crude oil, decided to slash production by 4.2 million barrels per day in meetings between September and December of last year.
However, analysts and OPEC members agree that there is still oversupply in the market. So far, the organization has implemented only 80 per cent of these reductions.(dpa)