Vienna - Opec yesterday agreed to keep oil supplies steady for the northern winter and to move aggressively early next year to shore up already high prices.
The oil exporting cartel had kept output limits unchanged at 24.5 million barrels a day and would meet again on February 10 in Algiers, a delegate said.
Energy ministers also agreed to gather on March 31 in Vienna and June 3 in Beirut, leaving markets in no doubt about its intention to micromanage prices.
"The message from Opec is that it is still managing the oil market very well," said Oystein Berentsen, the head of international crude trading at Norway's Statoil.
The cartel, which controls half of the crude oil trade, is expected to cut output in February. Members already appear to have a consensus that tougher restraints will be needed when northern hemisphere demand for heating oil eases and post-war Iraqi exports recover.
Before yesterday's meeting Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah said at least 1 million barrels a day would need to be removed.
After yesterday's deal oil prices reversed some of this week's sharp gains as traders expressed relief that Opec had not opted for immediate curbs from January.
US light crude eased by 37c to $30.73 a barrel, but Berentsen noted that "any downside move is likely to be limited. They can support $30 US crude if they want to."
Top Opec power Saudi Arabia said it was pursuing a higher oil price target to offset purchasing power lost to the decline of the dollar against other major currencies.
Other ministers have fallen in line with the effective raising of Opec's price target to $28 a barrel for an index of cartel crudes, after nearly four years of aiming for $25, but there was no move to change the group's formal $22 to $28 target band.
Independent energy consultant Mehdi Varzi said:
"Saudi Arabia is worried that next year it will get the double whammy of a lower market share, because it will have to shoulder most of the cuts, and higher import costs, because of the low dollar."