HTML clipboardAgence France-Presse . Vienna

OPEC left unchanged its oil production ceiling on Friday, snubbing US demands for an increase as the cartel focuses on supporting prices which have fallen 10 per cent since the start of the year.

Explaining its decision, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries said that stockpiles of crude were likely to increase in the first half of 2008.

‘In view of the current situation, coupled with the projected economic slow-down, the conference agreed that current OPEC production is sufficient to meet expected demand for the first quarter of the year,’ the group said in an official statement.

‘At the same time, however, the conference noted that the significant uncertainties associated with the projected downturn in the global economy called for vigilant attention to their impact on key market fundamentals of supply and demand until its next Meeting on 5 March 2008,’ it added.

OPEC, which pumps 40 per cent of world oil, decided to keep official daily output at 29.67 million oil barrels.

A freeze is be a snub to the United States after president George W Bush recently urged OPEC to increase output to help bring down high oil prices that stunt economic growth and fuel inflation.

However, lower oil prices are not welcomed by crude producers as their export income drops. Since striking a high above 100 dollars at the start of the year, the price of oil has slid owing to fears of a US recession and a global economic slowdown.

But crude futures are still almost double the level of a year ago.

A US recession would dent demand for crude in the world’s biggest energy market and send oil prices sliding further, OPEC fears.

Kuwait’s acting oil minister, Mohammed Al-Aleem, had said on Thursday that the 13-member OPEC was ‘a little worried about the impact of a slowdown or a recession in the United States’ on oil prices.

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