KUWAIT CITY, June 1: Opec’s president Sheikh Ahmed Fahd al-Sabah said on Wednesday that the oil producing cartel will most likely maintain current output levels at its next meeting set for June 15 in Vienna. “I started consulting with some of my colleagues. I think the situation is that we will continue to maintain our production (levels) now,” Sheikh Ahmed, who is also Kuwait’s energy minister, told reporters in parliament.

“And this will be... unless there is something unexpected in our meeting in June,” he added. The Opec chief also said the cartel will not increase its official output quota to account for over-production, saying: “We will keep the ceiling the same and also the (level of) over-production.”

The 11 members of Opec are producing in excess of 30 million barrels per day compared with an official fixed ceiling of 27.5 million bpd for the Opec-10 (excluding Iraq), agreed in March in the Iranian city of Isfahan. Sheikh Ahmed said the organization will not cut output for the third quarter of 2005.

“We will continue with the same production (level) in the third quarter,” he said.—AFP