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 OPEC President Chakib Khelil said crude stocks were well within their five-year average and the 13-nation group was not inclined to either boost or reduce its current output of about 32 million barrels a day.
"OPEC is concerned about the volatility of the market," Khelil, who is also Algeria's energy minister, said as the meeting opened. "Many factors are contributing to this volatility, including a weaker dollar, speculation (in crude markets) and the geopolitical situation."
Saudi Arabia, the No. 1 producer and by far the most influential member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, also said it saw no reason to change output targets
-- despite prices hovering near $100 a barrel and a rebuke by President Bush.
"Understand the consequences of high energy prices," Bush said Tuesday after meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House.
"I think it's a mistake to have your biggest customers' economies slowing down as a result of higher energy prices," he added.
Bush's scolding underscored fears that high oil prices -- which earlier this week hit a new inflation-adjusted all-time record of nearly $104 a barrel
-- are slowing global economic growth and risk nudging the shaky U.S. economy into recession.
Japan, the U.S. and other major industrialized nations have urged OPEC, which satisfies about 40 percent of the world's demand for crude, to bring more oil on the market as a means of pulling down prices.
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 But the group appeared to be resisting such a move, pointing to expectations of slackening demand in the second quarter and suggesting it would hold off to see what happens with supply and prices in coming months.
"Why do we need to take any new measure if the health of the market that we follow for our policies is sound?" the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat quoted Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi as saying.
Naimi told reporters in Vienna that his country is pumping roughly 300,000 barrels a day over its quota and is selling every drop "day in, day out"
-- an upbeat assessment.
Analysts said they didn't expect any significant action Wednesday.
"In truth, OPEC's decision not to pump more oil is a reflection that supply is relatively good," said Anthony Sabino, a professor of business at St. John's University in New York.
"What is driving oil prices up to the stratospheric level of over $100 per barrel is the U.S. economy, now undeniably in recession," he said. "It's not so much the price of oil is going up
-- it's that the value of the U.S. dollar, sad to say, is slumping."
The 13 OPEC members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Iraq is the only member not subject to the cartel's output quotas.
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On the Net:
http://www.opec.org/
[Associated Press; By WILLIAM J. KOLE]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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