Opec finds oil output consensus: 'Don't rock the boat'

Vienna

OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is set to carry on pumping oil nearly flat-out for months more, content that last year's shock market therapy has revived moribund demand and knocked back growing competition.

With oil prices having stabilised, for now, at around US$65 a barrel, some US$20 off their January lows, there's little appetite within the Opec to modify production limits, as some analysts have suggested is an outside possibility. "There is consensus among Gulf Opec countries, and others, to keep the ceiling unchanged," a senior Gulf Opec delegate told Reuters on Tuesday after an informal meeting of the four core Gulf Arab Opec members earlier in the day.