The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided at a meeting today in Angola to maintain its target output of crude at current levels, according to dpa. "With the world still faced by shrinking industrial production, low private consumption and high unemployment, the Conference once again decided to maintain current oil production levels unchanged for the time being," the 12-country cartel said in a statement after the meeting of oil and energy ministers. The OPEC conference was held for the first time in the southern African country of Angola, which joined the cartel in 2007. Angolan Prime Minister Antonio Paulo Kassoma and OPEC president Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos, Angola"s oil minister, opened the meeting before handing over to Ecuador, which takes over the rotating one-year presidency of the grouping. The decision by OPEC to keep output constant came as little surprise. OPEC"s Secretary-General Abdalla Salem El-Badri and several OPEC oil ministers had expressed satisfaction with the current oil price, which hovers between 70 and 80 dollars per barrel - twice the year-ago price - in the run-up to the meeting. The decision also reflects nervousness within OPEC over the depth of the recession from which the major economies are slowly emerging. OPEC aimed to keep oil prices at "fair and equitable levels ... for the future well-being of the market and the benefit of both producers and consumers."
