OPEC production unchanged

Arab oil ministers of OPEC says the cartel should keep production unchanged when it meets later this month as crude prices are close to the target of 80 dollars a barrel.

"Why should we raise output?" the oil minister of OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, Ali al-Naimi, asked on arrival in the Egyptian capital for a conference of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) from Saturday.

"We still have time (for the meeting). But right now, the price is ok, between 70 and 80 (dollars). It's close to the target that we set at 75 dollars a barrel," Naimi told reporters.

The oil ministers of Algeria, Libya and Qatar also supported a rollover of oil output when OPEC ministers meet on December 22 in Luanda, Angola, although they said the market was over-supplied.

"OPEC should probably not change production," at the Luanda meeting, said Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil, but he added that crude prices were slightly low.

Oil "prices are a bit low. We don't have a target, but it's low. It is still better than last year this time," Khelil said.
Last year, prices slumped to just above 30 dollars a barrel due to the impact of the global financial meltdown, before recovering to between 70-80 dollars at present.

Oil prices rallied on Friday following news of shrinking unemployment in the United States, the world's top energy-consuming nation.