Opec keeps oil production ceiling Opec agreed to keep its production ceiling unchanged on Thursday, though analysts still expect Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies to cut output if oil prices continue to fall. Ministers from the oil producers" cartel met against a backdrop of a sharp drop in the price of crude and uncertainty about oil demand. Before the meeting, most delegates said it should be left unchanged. Crude has fallen from a peak of $128 a barrel in March to below $100 now, as the eurozone debt crisis, the faltering recovery in the US and a slowdown in India and China undermine oil demand. There are also question marks over supply, especially once EU sanctions against Iran over the country's nuclear programme come into effect in July. Saudi Arabia, which has been pumping oil at 30-year highs, has been blamed by some Opec members for causing the price drop. The kingdom increased output this year in an apparent effort to make up any shortfall in Iranian exports as sanctions began to bite. "Some member countries should cut their production," Rostam Ghasemi, the Iranian oil minister, said. Addressing delegates, Opec's president, Abdul-Kareem Luaibi Bahedh, the Iraqi oil minister, described the level of oil price volatility as "disturbing" and "a matter of concern to us." He said crude recently fell by $9.65 a barrel in just four days. José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, the Angolan oil minister, said member states wanted a price of "between $100 and $110 a barrel" - a price he said was necessary to justify investments in areas such as Brazil's pre-salt fields and offshore Angola. Opec agreed at its last meeting in December on a production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day. But it is already producing 1.6m b/d more than that, according to its own figures. However, any attempt to come up with a new number would be likely to tax the cartel, which often struggles to find consensus. Hani Hussain, the Kuwaiti oil minister, said it was "too early" to change the output target. "We want to be careful not to give any undue shocks to the market," he said. Sticking to the current target would "bring stability and comfort." But any discussion about targets was theoretical, analysts said. Most Opec states are producing flat out, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE the only three with the spare production capacity to increase or reduce output as needed. The three pumped more crude last year to make up for the loss of Libyan exports, and that pattern could now repeat itself, analysts say. "If Brent crude pierces $90 a barrel, and it appears to be falling further, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE will cut production," says Paul Tossetti, senior director for markets and country strategies at PFC Energy. And they can do so without consulting other Opec members.