OPEC output should remain unchanged

OPEC output should remain unchanged

Indonesia added its voice Tuesday to calls by leading OPEC members to keep output quotas unchanged at the cartel's next meeting in Vienna on Sept. 24.

OPEC - the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - should maintain its current production level to ensure crude oil prices trade between US$22 and $28 a barrel, said Iin Arifin Takhyan, director general of oil and gas at Indonesia's energy ministry in Jakarta.

Last week, Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi and his Kuwaiti counterpart said OPEC probably doesn't need to make any changes to its output cap of 25.4 million barrels of oil a day because the international oil market is well balanced.

In July, cartel members agreed to hold output steady and wait until September before adjusting quotas in anticipation of the return of Iraqi oil to the market.

Chronic security problems have hindered efforts to revive Iraqi oil exports. But OPEC worries that a future flood of Iraqi crude may drive world prices lower.

Iraq is one of OPEC's 11 members but hasn't participated in the group's output quotas since international sanctions were imposed against Baghdad in 1990. A new Iraqi government would have to decide whether the country should stick with the cartel or go it alone as an independent producer. -- JP