The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, will maintain its current production levels at its next meeting if oil prices continue to climb, Algeria's oil minister, Chakib Khelil, said Tuesday, according to the Kuwait News Agency. "There is no need to change the level of production if oil prices keep increasing like they are now," Khelil said, according to the official Kuwaiti agency, also known as KUNA.
Khelil added that the oil cartel will also maintain production quotas if prices keep rising, KUNA reported.
OPEC, which meets at the end of this month in Vienna to decide the future production quota for members, has seen oil price slightly rise over the past week to reach a level of $56 a barrel.
Khelil said the group needs to be "strict" when it comes to its members' compliance with their designated quotas, adding that it is hard for OPEC to decide to cut its production level if some countries are not compliant, KUNA reported.
"OPEC today needs to lift about 700,000 barrels of oil a day off the market in order to support prices," Khelil said, according to KUNA.
However, he expected oil prices to rise to about $63 a barrel by the end of the year, from its current level of $56-$57 a barrel.
The 12 member countries of the Vienna-based OPEC produce over a third of the world's crude oil supply.