OPEC expected to boost oil output

VIENNA -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to announce an increase in oil production that analysts expect will stabilise -- and possibly reduce -- world oil prices that last week hit a 10-year high.

In a meeting with worldwide implications, OPEC oil ministers have been trying since Friday in Vienna to decide on production quotas that will determine global oil prices.

Sources close to the OPEC discussions in the Austrian capital told CNN that output among the 11 member states of the oil cartel would boost output by 800,000 barrels per day.

The Kuwaitis are thought to be brokering the deal. The Libyans are insisting that the production increase be no more than 1 million barrels a day.

RESOURCES Comparison of petrol prices in the US and Europe     ALSO OPEC jockeying begins

The decision exceeded widespread expectations of an increase of about 500,000 barrels per day and helped ease fears in the industrialised world of a global recession.

With oil prices now sitting above $30 per barrel -- triple the price of just over one year ago -- oil-importing economies such as Europe and North America have been putting pressure on OPEC to cool prices by increasing production.

Despite pledges from dominant OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran to open the taps wider, there was no certainty that the increases would be sufficient to dent world oil prices.

In Europe, France, Britain, Belgium and Spain have been wracked by protests that have left service stations empty and -- in France especially -- economies at risk.

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OPEC
The European Commission
Oil Prices

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