The OPEC oil group opted Thursday to keep its output unchanged, with signs of economic recovery and higher crude prices persuading members to maintain their current production levels. The 12-member group believes the market is oversupplied, as shown by current high stock levels, but the exporters are satisfied with prices after a recent rally that has taken crude back above $60 a barrel. “Our decision was to remain with the same level because we see things improving in the future,” said Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil, adding the group's production target would remain at 24.845 million barrels a day. The group could have cut production to remove some of the excess oil in the world system. Demand is so weak that millions of barrels of crude are being kept at sea in tankers that have become floating storage facilities. Instead, the group has bet that increasing demand will mop up some of this glut. Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi spoke Wednesday of signs of a pick up in orders in Asia and the United States. “The market is oversupplied, it's true, but ... we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. There is slowly, slowly a small recovery,” said OPEC secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri after a regular meeting in Vienna. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of world oil, cut its production target three times late last year to stabilize prices that tumbled from record highs above $147 in July to $32.40 in December. The group seeks to influence prices by setting an output quota, with members given individual production targets that are reviewed at regular meetings. Some ministers have expressed concern that a cut in production by OPEC at this meeting would have driven oil prices much higher, burdening the world economy with expensive energy at a time of deep recession. “We should not make it more difficult for the world economy,” said the head of Libya's National Oil Company, Shukri Ghanem before the meeting. Khelil said that $60 oil was “not a constraint,” however, reflecting a more bullish view on the economic outlook.
