Opec to keep oil supply target steady next week: Survey

LONDON: Opec will keep its crude production limit unchanged next week as it anticipates demand in line with its current target, and as members struggle to agree on their individual share of the total, according to a Bloomberg survey.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries will reaffirm their collective limit of 30 million barrels a day, first set two years ago, when its 12 members gather in Vienna on December 4, 22 of 24 analysts and traders polled this week by Bloomberg News predicted. The group expects demand for its crude to average 29.6 million barrels a day in 2014.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest member, will probably make any supply cuts it deems necessary on an informal basis, Societe Generale said. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Mike Wittner, Societe Generale’s head of oil research in New York.