OPEC is prepared to cut output to boost oil prices 32 percent to its target of US$25 a barrel, said the oil minister for Saudi Arabia, the group's largest producer.
"We are willing and determined to defend US$25 a barrel," said Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi minister, after meeting in Abu Dhabi with his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
OPEC's oil price index has been below the group's US$22 to US$28 a barrel target range for a month. It was at US$18.97 a barrel on Wednesday, down from US$25.56 on Sept. 10, the day before the attack on the US compounded a slowdown in energy demand.
The 11 members of OPEC, which supplies close to 40 percent of the world's oil, rely on oil sales for as much as 90 percent of government revenue.
The group is concerned a glut of oil may cause prices to collapse to near US$10 a barrel, a level last seen in 1998.
Analysts said it's unlikely oil prices will return to US$25 a barrel within the next six months, given weakness in the worldwide economy and flat demand for oil.
"Unless there is an unexpected disruption to oil supplies, or the war in Afghanistan moves to the Middle East, US$20 is a more realistic target,'' said Mohammed Abduljabbar, an oil analyst with the Petroleum Finance Company in Washington.
A cut of 700,000 to 1.5 million barrels a day is being considered by OPEC and also by non-OPEC countries, al-Naimi said.
The 10 members of OPEC with production quotas, all except Iraq, agreed to cut output by a total of 3.5 million barrels a day, or 13 percent, on three separate occasions earlier this year in a bid to keep prices around US$25 a barrel.
The exporters' group has said it's reluctant to cut quotas again without participation from non-OPEC producers such as Oman and Russia, which otherwise might use an OPEC rollback to win market share. Independent producers have so far resisted cooperating.
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