Algerian oil minister optimistic about OPEC meeting

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All options are open at the next meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in March, Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said on Sunday.

Energy ministers from OPEC, whose 12 members pump more than a third of the world’s oil, meet in Vienna on March 17 to decide whether to change production levels for crude or leave them as they are.

Asked by Reuters if OPEC would consider new cuts in output or tightening compliance with previous cuts at the meeting, Khelil said: “I think all options are open.”

In late 2008, OPEC cut supply by 4.2 million barrels per day, or about 5 percent of world demand, in reponse to lower demand and prices caused by the global economic downturn.

Since then oil prices have recovered to reach about $75 a barrel at the end of last week, but several oil producing countries have said the economic recovery is for the time being too fragile to start increasing production again.