OPEC to maintain current crude production

? OPEC oil ministers agreed Thursday to maintain crude production at existing levels, suggesting the group was happy with prices around $60 a barrel and available supplies ahead of the high-demand American summer driving season.

“The market is stable, the market is healthy,” OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri of Libya said. “We don’t need to touch it this time.”

Still, production could fall if ministers implement compliance with cuts agreed on in the past four months.

In meetings in October in Qatar and December in Nigeria, OPEC agreed to take a combined 1.7 million barrels a day off global oil markets as they sought to shore up sagging oil prices and shrink burgeoning inventories.

Actual cuts have been only about 1 million barrels a day. Still, they have helped to drive oil prices back from levels below $50 a barrel toward $60 a barrel. They also have dented global oil inventories, raising the prospect of OPEC having to lift production at some point this year.