OPEC has deal to keep output unchanged: Report

Ministers from the oil producers' cartel OPEC had decided not to increase production of crude oil in the fourth quarter of 2002.

OPEC Secretary-General Alvaro Silva said the organization has reached a deal Thursday to keep its official crude oil output ceiling unchanged at 21.7 million barrels per day.

Silva was speaking shortly after the OPEC ministers ended their first informal meeting in Osaka.

OPEC had been under pressure to increase production amid fears of a US-led war on Iraq. Saudi Arabia, the most powerful member of the cartel, argued in favour of boosting output and lowering prices.

But it was persuaded to go along with the majority, who are fiercely opposed to raising production at a time when the oil price is volatile and could quickly fall if there is no war.

Furthermore, Silva said OPEC would keep production stable until at least December and would review output at an extraordinary meeting early that month, without giving an exact date.

"For now, we have agreed to keep output stable at least until December. If there is a reason to put more oil on the market by then, OPEC will do so when we have an extraordinary ministers meeting during early December," he was quoted by Dow Jones Newswires as saying. (*)