OPEC's decision Friday to retain its production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day came as no surprise to the oil markets, with the lack of movement having been heavily flagged in the runup to the producer group's meeting.

Benchmark Brent, the widely-accepted global oil price, has traded lower since the Intercontinental Exchange opened Friday, and the price didn't move on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' decision.

GFT Markets technical analyst Fawad Razaqzada said given the excess supply in the U.S. and all else remaining the same, the oil price should fall further over the coming months.

Although OPEC made no mention of U.S. oil production in its official communique, a senior Gulf OPEC delegate told Dow Jones Newswires that the group has agreed to study the impact of growing U.S. shale oil production on its members.

" Algeria , Iran , Venezuela and to some extent Nigeria were quite worried in the meeting about growing shale oil supplies," said the delegate.

OPEC said it will meet again Dec. 4. Julian Jessop, head of commodities research at Capital Economics, said the group's next move will probably be an output cut.

"Demand remains weak and non-OPEC supply ample," Mr. Jessop said. "This might prevent prices from falling as far as they would otherwise have done, but fundamentals should remain soft and the trend should remain down."

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