OPEC to maintain oil production levels

DOHA, Qatar -- OPEC decided Wednesday to maintain current oil production levels until the end of next month, the cartel's president said.\nMinisters said they would maintain the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries target production ceiling of 25.4 million barrels a day. They also said member states had to stop exceeding their quotas and comply with the production schedule.\nCartel president Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, who is also Qatar's oil minister, said OPEC would meet again July 31 to reassess the situation and look at the impact of Iraq's return to the market.\n"Then we will have some options -- either to cut production or not. That is what we need to decide," al-Attiyah said.\nHe initially told reporters the 11-nation cartel would preserve its output level until its next scheduled meeting in September but then said they would meet next month.\nAttracted by high prices, OPEC members have been exceeding their designated quotas and have oversupplied the market by about 1.5 million barrels a day. That means 26.9 million barrels are being pumped into the market daily.\n"The conference decided to maintain currently agreed production levels with stricter compliance of designated quotas," OPEC spokesman Omar Farouk Ibrahim told reporters.\nThe oil minister of the United Arab Emirates, Obaid bin Saif al-Nasseri, called for member states to respect their quotas.\n"The market is comfortable, but we should think ahead to the third quarter" beginning July 1, al-Nasseri said Tuesday.