OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in a ministerial meeting consented that its production quotas will remain steady, and urged for members to work towards improving their compliance with all the production cuts that were agreed upon last year.

The fact that the company will be keeping its oil-output targets at levels unchanged has been made possible due to comfortable oil prices.

Oil inventories will remain at high levels and OPEC wants to cut them by encouraging members to improve their compliance with the combined 4.2 million barrels a day of output cuts they agreed upon late last year.

“A rollover of quotas was the market’s expectation”, Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity derivatives research at BNP Paribas said from Paris after the decision was announced. “An oil price above $70 makes issues surrounding compliance relative to targeted cuts less pressing”.

Crude oil was down by 40 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $73.32 a barrel.

OPEC's compliance with its production ceiling, as predicted by some analysts, will be 60%.