OPEC meeting ends without production cap; oil stabilizes after dip

The meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that took place in Vienna on June 2 ended without an agreement on a production ceiling for oil.

Delegates leaving the meeting emphasized that the recovery from a 13-year low below $30 a barrel in January had reduced the urgency for co-ordinated action and showed supply and demand were coming into balance.

With oil prices up about 80% over the past few months from 13-year lows hit in the winter, there was little pressure on OPEC to take significant action to limit the global oversupply of crude, national energy ministers said after the meeting.

Oil prices rose 0.3% on Thursday after the meeting, as investors looked past the OPEC decision and traded up on new data showing a drop in U.S. oil production.

Ahead of the OPEC meeting, oil prices rose on Wednesday as some OPEC members floated the idea of reintroducing collective production limits, which would serve as a signal to the market that the group could be disciplined. Until last December, OPEC had a production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day, a mark it routinely exceeded by more than two million barrels a day.

While no formal agreement on production was reached, as expected by analysts, this week’s meeting in Vienna has been notably more amicable than the prior two gatherings of ministers that have both ended in open discord. Also, the meeting resulted with the appointment of a new secretary-general for the organization, Nigeria’s Mohammed Barkindo.

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