KUWAIT CITY, Dec 12: Opec decided on Monday to keep oil production at a near 25-year-high but withdraw an emergency offer of spare capacity because the energy market is well supplied and prices are stable.

The powerful 11-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also said it would meet again on January 31 in Vienna to assess a seasonal drop in demand for energy, with a possible cut in output on the cards.

The widely-anticipated decision came at the end of a one-day meeting in Kuwait City.

Opec’s official production quota of 28 million barrels per day (bpd) “will be adequate, if fully observed, to balance the market for the first quarter of the year,” it said in a statement.

As a result, actual production will remain at some 30 million bpd when Iraq’s contribution is included. The war-torn country has been excluded from the group’s quota system since 1990.

Turning to the emergency pledge of two million bpd in extra capacity offered in September, Opec president Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah said the measure would not be renewed after it expires at the end of 2005.

But Sheikh Ahmad, who is also Kuwait’s energy minister, noted that the cartel would bring back the offer if necessary in the future.

“Like always, Opec will be ready and grateful to help the market whenever there will be a shortage of supply,” said Sheikh Ahmad, who is due to hand over the rotating presidency to Nigeria’s presidential oil advisor Edmund Daukoru at the end of the year.—AFP