NEW DELHI: OPEC will not change its output quota at its next meeting on Oct. 14 in Vienna, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said on Saturday on arriving here for trip expected to last several days. "No increase, no change, we will keep the quota as it is," he told Reuters when asked what the likely outcome of the meeting will be. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has had a quiet year so far in 2010, meeting only in March and making no change to output policy. Compliance among members with implied output curbs has sunk to just above 50 percent as oil has largely traded within the organization's preferred zone of $70 to $80 per barrel. Libya, Iraq, Qatar and Ecuador have already said they see no need for a change in policy at the moment for the 12-member group. Asked if he was comfortable with the current level of global oil prices, the Kuwaiti minister said, "Yes". However, Libya said earlier this month that $100 per barrel was needed to cope with rising costs of food imports. Wheat prices have risen by more than 50 percent since the end of May after Russia suffered its worst drought in 130 years, hitting supplies of the staple.
