20091218

LUANDA (Reuters) - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will keep production targets unchanged at a meeting next week, the group's president Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos told Angolan Radio Ecclesia.

With oil around $75 a barrel, several other OPEC oil ministers have said there was no need for the group to change its output targets at the Dec 22 meeting in Angola.

Saudi Arabia is among those to have expressed this view.

"Oil prices are trading at $70 to $75 per barrel which is the level our group has defended. I believe we will maintain the decisions that were taken in the past about output quotas and keep targets unchanged," Vasconcelos told the radio station.

"We hope 2010 will also be a year in which our organization can contribute to stability (in the oil market) and avoid volatility in prices."

The group has not changed production quotas in 2009 after it agreed to curb supply by 4.2 million barrels per day last year as a global economic recession eroded demand and sent oil prices tumbling by more than $100 per barrel.

Oil was trading at $73.25 per barrel on Friday