OPEC to keep output steady

CARACAS, Venezuela — OPEC, pumping almost as much as it can amid soaring oil prices, decided Thursday to keep its output steady, rejecting suggestions by Venezuela to cut production.

Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah told reporters of the decision after OPEC members finished a closed-door session that solidified an earlier informal agreement not to adjust its official output quota of 28 million barrels per day.

Speaking shortly before OPEC's formal meeting, al-Attiyah said the market has more than enough supply but that "at this price level, OPEC won't cut production."

However, Al-Attiyah cautioned that OPEC could change course by the time it meets next in September.

Emerging from the meeting, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez acknowledged OPEC would not take up the suggestion of a production cut. "There is no increase in production, and there is also no cut," he said.

Analysts said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries put aside concerns about rising global inventories of crude and weakening demand growth, at least temporarily, to focus on a more immediate worry: $70-a-barrel oil.

"Most of the members are not comfortable with these prices," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research, based in Winchester, Mass. "They may expect the market to weaken in the second half of the year, but they still feel the price is too high right now for them to cut production."

Medley Global Advisors senior managing director Yasser Elguindi said most OPEC members "don't want to send any signals to the market that there's a floor at $70."

While high oil prices mean big profits for oil producers in the near term, the longer-term risk is that they could cause a dropoff in economic growth and energy consumption and spur the development of alternative energy sources.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi described petroleum markets as "oversupplied and overpriced" just before he headed into the meeting.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a longtime price hawk, suggested trimming production, and he repeated calls for OPEC to establish a minimum price of $50 a barrel.

"There is enough oil on the market. We even believe there is an excess of oil on the market," Chavez said in a speech. "$50 is a fair price, but as a minimum."

He said the price "ceiling would be infinity."

Nigerian petroleum minister Edmund Daukoru said Chavez' idea was not formally proposed to OPEC.