VIENNA - OPEC decided to keep oil production quotas unchanged at a meeting in Vienna, Algeria’s oil minister said.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to maintain total production quotas at 24.845 million barrels a day, Chakib Khelil said as he left the meeting.
It’s the third time this year group has met without revising the figure.
The producer group, which accounts for about 40 percent of global crude supply, had been expected to keep output unchanged after prices rallied.
Oil has gained 61 percent this year, last month reaching the $75 level identified by Saudi King Abdullah as satisfactory for consumers and producers.
Saudi Arabia accounts for about a third of the group’s output with daily output of just over 8 million barrels, according to Bloomberg estimates.
Ministers from a number of OPEC member states including Kuwait and Venezuela said this week they did not expect any change in allowed production volumes.
Quotas were last changed in December.
OPEC agreed late last year to cut production targets by 4.2 million barrels a day after prices crashed more than $100 a barrel from a record set in July 2008. Oil dipped to $32.40 in December before recovering this year.
In the past five months, production has risen from the 11 OPEC members bound by quotas.
Oil prices finished higher for a second straight day yesterday on continued weakening of the dollar.
Benchmark crude for October delivery rose 20 cents to settle at $71.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after reaching as high as $72.52.
On Tuesday, the contract jumped $3.08 as the dollar fell to a low for the year against the euro.
Because crude is priced in the US currency, it essentially becomes cheaper when the dollar falls.
“This is all about the US dollar,’’ Jim Ritterbusch, of Ritterbusch and Associates, said of the rising price of oil. “As the dollar stays weak, oil goes up.’’
