OPEC: No cut in oil production, oil prices fall VIENNA, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced Thursday it will not reduce oil production in the next six months. At a heavily anticipated six-hour meeting in Vienna, representatives of the 12 OPEC member countries agreed to continue the policy of producing 30 million barrels of oil per day despite objections from Venezuela and "concerns" from other countries. "We're going to produce 30 million (barrels per day) for the first half of the year," said OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem El-Badri after the meeting. A cut in production by OPEC nations would have been the first since 2008. The price of oil has been driven down in 2014 in part by a decline in demand in China and Europe. More recently, however, China has been taking in more energy. Increased U.S. production is also partly to blame for falling prices, and some analysts say static production from OPEC and continued low prices could squeeze the U.S. shale sector, where production is more expensive than elsewhere. After the announcement, oil prices fell, in the case of benchmark Brent crude oil by $3.39 to $74.36 per barrel, a new four-year low, and down from a monthly average of $112 per barrel in July. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, fell $3.18 to $70.51 per barrel. Value of the Russian ruble fell 1.6 percent immediately after the announcement; although Russia is not an OPEC member, its economy relies heavily on oil exports.