VIENNA, 1 August 2003 — OPEC oil ministers agreed yesterday to leave output quotas unchanged but indicated they might cut production in September to ward off a glut on world markets if exports pick up from postwar Iraq.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls about one third of global oil production, said it had decided to maintain its official production ceiling of 25.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in force since June 1. The market was “stable and well supplied,” with prices within the group’s target band of $22 to $28 per barrel, an official said in a statement.

“Prospects for the fourth quarter of 2003 and 2004, however, indicate that estimated demand growth is less than the expected increase in supplies,” underscoring the need for “continued vigilance,” he added.

“OPEC has real concern for oversupply of oil for the end of this year and the beginning of 2004,” Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh added.

OPEC President Abdullah Al-Attiyah, who is also Qatar’s energy minister, said that “all options are open” for the grouping’s next scheduled meeting at its headquarters in the Austrian capital on Sept. 24.

The decision would be taken in view of supply and demand projections, and Iraq’s level of production, he added.

Attiyah said he was in contact with Iraqi oil officials who had told him they expected Iraqi oil output to reach two million bpd by the end of the year.

But while the group appears content with the current situation, prices are still too high from the point of view of consumer countries struggling to breathe new life into the sluggish global economy.

London Brent oil prices have risen by over 15 percent since the fall of Baghdad in early April. The price of reference Brent North Sea crude for September delivery gained another 25 cents to $28.75 per barrel in the wake of OPEC’s announcement.

The group called the meeting, the second in as many months, at its last conference in Doha in June, amid concern a resumption of exports from Iraq after the end of the war there might trigger a slump in oil prices.

But more than three months after the fall of Baghdad, world markets are still waiting for the return of Iraqi oil exports in any significant quantity.