Oil Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to extend their June 1998 agreement on their oil production ceiling until the end of 1999. Kuwaiti oil minister announced this at the end of the 106th meeting of the OPEC ministers Thursday. According to the June 1998 agreement, the OPEC production excluding Iraq's output, was reduced as of July 1, 1998 by 2.6 million barrels a day from the February 1998 output.

OPEC ministers thus agreed on a production ceiling of 24.4 million barrels a day. The meeting also decided to hold the 107th OPEC ministerial meeting in Vienna next March. Another report said that the Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Rilwan Lukman, said here Thursday that the official OPEC output will not change until next June. He said at the end of the 106th ministerial meeting of the body that the participants in the 2-day meeting did not make any change in the June 1998 agreement.

Lukman did not confirm reports by a number of OPEC ministers that the present OPEC ceiling will be kept till the end of 1999, adding that the final statement does not contain such an information. In case the market conditions require, the OPEC ministers will discuss further cut in their production in their next meeting slated for March, he added. The secretary general said that OPEC ministers have decided to hold their ordinary meets in the months of March and September instead of June and November. Regarding Algeria's proposal on holding a summit of oil producing countries, he said this would depend on the willingness of the member countries and that OPEC will contact them and review their responses.

The 106th OPEC ministerial meet commenced here Wednesday also attended by Russian Minister of Energy, Mexican Deputy Energy Minister and representative of Oman as observers. The three countries are among non-OPEC oil producers.