VIENNA, Austria -- OPEC oil ministers have reaffirmed their commitment to current cuts in the group's production levels despite the recent steep rise in world oil prices.
Their apparent resolve not to boost output of crude bodes poorly for consumers, who are likely to face bigger fuel bills as the demand to heat homes picks up this winter."It is now almost agreed by all of us that the present production ceiling should continue at least up to next March," Iraq's Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rasheed said Tuesday.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, speaking separately, said none of OPEC's 11 members were likely even to raise the question of easing output quotas to help meet the expected rise in winter demand.
"In March we can have some discussion, but it depends on the market situation," Zangeneh said.
The ministers spoke to reporters upon arrival in Vienna for a semiannual meeting on Wednesday of oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
At its last meeting in March of this year, OPEC agreed together with major non-OPEC producers like Mexico and Russia to slash daily production by 2.1 million barrels, or 2.6 percent of the global supply, in an effort to lift prices from 12-year lows. The agreement extends through March 2000.
Many industry analysts expect OPEC to stick by the production cuts. The group produces more than 26 million barrels of crude each day, at least 35 percent of the world's total.
OPEC has shown unusual discipline since its last meeting by curtailing production to try to eliminate a global oil surplus.
Unlike in the past, when members of the group routinely produced beyond their agreed quotas, OPEC's compliance with this year's cuts has been high, peaking at 92 percent in August, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris.
This unity of purpose has helped drive up prices. Average pump prices for a gallon of gasoline in the United States stood at nearly $1.32 a gallon this month, up from less than $1 in February, according to the Lundberg Survey of 10,000 stations.
Heating oil prices in the United States are expected to average about $1.04 per gallon this winter, up from 80 cents per gallon last year, the U.S. government estimated earlier this month.