Opec agrees to leave quotas unchanged

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), content with oil prices exceeding $80 a barrel, decided for the fifth time since 2008 to keep its production limits unchanged, even as some members voiced concern that supply may be too high. Ministers from Opec’s 12 member countries agreed to stand by the output quota as expected at their meeting today in Vienna, according to Libyan delegate Shokri Ghanem.

Opec has reaffirmed the quotas at every meeting since they were set in December 2008, even though the group is exceeding that limit by the equivalent of a supertanker of crude a day. Opec, supplying about 40 per cent of the world’s oil, set its official cap at 24.845 million barrels a day.