The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has encouraged member countries not to exceed the group's production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day, but won't cut output below that level with prices at their current levels, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri said Thursday.

"We cannot cut production with this $110 a barrel price," Mr. el-Badri said at a press conference the day after an OPEC meeting in Vienna.

"The world economy is fragile, we don't want to make any disturbance to supply," he said.

However, he said member states are being encouraged to bring production down to the 30 million barrels-a-day ceiling agreed by the group. Output has consistently exceeded this level this year, with production running about 1 million barrels a day above the level of supply that OPEC expects the world will need from it next year.

Mr. el-Badri also said the group welcomed the rise in supply of oil in the U.S.

"We don't see it as a threat to OPEC," said Mr. el-Badri. "We welcome any additional supply to the world oil outlook."

Source: Dow Jones