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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

UPDATE: OPEC President: No Need For OPEC Quota Output Change

By Benoit Faucon

Dow Jones Newswires

(Adds details.)

VIENNA -(Dow Jones)- OPEC doesn't need to change its oil output ceiling but its members need to comply with agreed cuts, the group's president said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters as he arrived at a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Germanico Pinto said "at this moment, we think a modification [of the oil output ceiling] is not needed."

But "we have to comply with what we planned to comply with," added Pinto, who is also Ecuador's minister for non-renewable resources, a position equivalent to oil minister.

OPEC in late 2008 agreed to cut 4.2 million barrels a day of oil output in order to revive flagging oil prices.

But today, "we see that there is a reasonable stability in the market in terms of prices," Pinto said. "We expect this year to continue that way."

"We should continue the policy that was stated in 2008 for the moment," he added.

Pinto also said he sees no need to meet again before a planned conference in September.

Regarding oil investment in Ecuador, the minister said: "We have been talking to several public companies in the world. We are especially talking to public companies in Russia."

"We expect that to be able to define strategic agreements with several companies this year," he said.

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