Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has decided to maintain its current oil output quotas, the group’s Iranian president Mohammed Aliabadi said on Wednesday after the 159th meeting of the organization ended in Vienna.

“OPEC will wait for a period of three months after failing to agree to increase output at the meeting”, Aliabadi added.
“It was decided we have about three months to evaluate the situation and then we will make the appropriate decision,” Reuters quoted Aliabadi as saying.
“It’s a rollover,” he said of the OPEC’s decision not to raise output.
“Agreement could not be reached on the timing and amount of an increase, so the group left its quota unchanged”, Dow Jones quoted Aliabadi as telling reporters.
An OPEC delegate said Iran, Venezuela and Algeria had refused to agree to a proposal backed by Saudi Arabia to raise the group’s output.
“Unfortunately we are unable to reach a consensus this time to reduce or raise our production,” Abdullah Salem El Badri, secretary general of the OPEC, said at the end of the gathering of the 12-nation organization, whose official output target stands at 24.84 million barrels per day (mbpd).
The next meeting will be in mid-December in Vienna to reassess the situation, he added.
“This is one of the worst meetings we have ever had,” said Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.
Naimi said 6 countries in the 12-member group were opposed to an increase in output.
He said the Persian Gulf Arab countries had proposed an increase to 30.3 million barrels a day, compared to current supply of about 29 million bpd, including Iraq which is not bound by an OPEC quota.
The Persian Gulf Arab delegates said Iran, Venezuela and Algeria were among those to refuse to consider an output increase. Non-Persian Gulf delegates said Saudi Arabia had proposed an increase on top of April supplies that was too high for them to contemplate.
Oil prices jumped by $2 on Wednesday after OPEC failed to reach a deal to increase output, raising fears of supply shortages later this year and a price rally that could damage global economic recovery.
(Source: agencies)