OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna this week were expected to keep supply targets intact and instead rely on hoped-for economic growth to sustain oil prices. The oil market rose toward $69 a barrel on Monday after Group of 20 finance leaders said at a weekend meeting they would not end stimulus plans until recovery was well established. Traders predicted the extended financial support would translate into higher fuel demand. “There is a general consensus to no further cuts,” Kuwait's oil minister told reporters before boarding a flight to Vienna. Delegates already in Vienna ahead of the meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to begin late on Wednesday also predicted no change. “There's no need to change output,” one told Reuters. Delegates said members of the group were satisfied with the oil price, even though inventory levels were much higher than OPEC considers appropriate. “I think the current price level is not an issue for most OPEC members,” said another. OPEC has kept official output targets steady since it announced late last year a record cut of 4.2 million barrels per day from September 2008 production. But as the oil market has recovered from a low of $32.40 in December - its weakest in nearly five years - to this year's peak of $75 hit in August, it has reduced levels of compliance with agreed curbs from a peak of 80 percent of agreed cuts to less than 70 percent. The lapsing discipline has contributed to an inventory build up that has taken stock levels to the equivalent of nearly 62 days of forward cover, according to figures from the International Energy Agency. That is around 10 days more than OPEC views as comfortable. Gary Ross, CEO of US-based consultancy PIRA Energy, said prices would be a lot higher, more than $100, if stocks had fallen to the kind of level OPEC had wanted. “You can't say the price is too high. The EU and the US aren't saying much different in terms of what they want,” he said. “OPEC's happy, everybody's happy, so why change it?” Ross predicted inventories would decline in the peak demand northern hemisphere winter and the price would continue to rise. “I'm very bullish on the economy and I'm expecting corporate profit revisions for the third quarter,” he said. For some in OPEC high stocks are a greater issue than they are for others.
