Opec resists pressure to boost oil prices

The major oil producing countries are expected to announce they will continue to produce crude oil at current levels.

There had been fears that this week's meeting of Opec - the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - would cut production to boost the crude oil price.

Opec representatives are thought to have reached agreement in Vienna late on Wednesday but won't announce their decision until after formal talks on Thursday.

But several delegates said earlier that Opec is likely to stick with its current official output levels of 23.2 million barrels a day.

Members are constrained from cutting output to bolster prices because such a step could tip the fragile world economy decisively into recession.

Opec's room for maneuvre is limited further by the reluctance of key members to antagonize the United States, the main importer of Opec crude, as it leads a military alliance against Afghanistan's Taliban regime and the forces loyal to Osama bin Laden.

Opec has cut back its official production three times this year already, most recently by 1 million barrels a day on September 1.

But many Opec members are still producing well above their individual quotas, for a total that analysts estimate ranges from 700,000 to 1.5 million barrels a day. All told, OPEC supplies almost two-fifths of the world's oil.

The group's immediate challenge is to reach a consensus about prices, which, after spiking to $31 a barrel after the attacks, have since tumbled.

While Opec delegates spoke Wednesday of defending their established target price of $25 a barrel, prices wallowed below $22 - Opec's minimum acceptable price for a barrel of oil - for the third consecutive day. The OPEC benchmark price for crude ended Tuesday, the most recent price available, at $19.87 a barrel.