VIENNA: OPEC ministers on Wednesday agreed to change their production ceiling to 28.8 million barrels per day, a move that officials said should effectively cut production by 520,000 barrels a day, or about 1.8 percent, from July levels.
"Since the market is oversupplied, the conference agreed to abide by September 2007 production allocations adjusted to include new members Angola and Ecuador and excluding Indonesia and Iraq, totaling 28.8 million barrels per day, levels with which member countries committed to strictly comply," OPEC said in communique.
Oil prices clawed back deep early losses to climb $1 Wednesday after the announcement. Earlier in Asian trade, U.S. crude for October delivery had fallen more than $1 to a session low of $102.06 a barrel, near the five-month low it hit after a steep slide the previous day.
OPEC had been widely expected to maintain current production targets at its meeting in Vienna, although some ministers had advocated tighter compliance with formal limits by members who were overproducing their targets.
Posted By: Jimmy Plymouth
Tuesday, September 23rd 2008 at 3:22PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...