OPEC gathers in Vienna this week for a ministerial meeting to decide on the cartel's oil production ceiling as a predicted drop in demand risks weighing on high crude prices despite Middle East unrest.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries which pumps out 35%of the world's oil may also finally decide on a new head after a vote to appoint a successor to OPEC Secretary General Abdullah El-Badri was postponed in June.
The 12 nation cartel which includes the world's biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia and Iran currently under an oil embargo was to hold a regular output meeting at OPEC's headquarters in the Austrian capital on Wednesday.
Mr Jason Schenker of Prestige Economics research group said that"OPEC's official production target is unlikely to change at the December meeting.Nevertheless,there is likely to be a heated debate over who will be OPEC's next secretary general."
Benchmark Brent crude oil futures have traded around USD 110 a barrel over the past 6 weeks above the USD 100 level deemed acceptable by OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia.
The Centre for Global Energy Studies warned that member countries would however need to be vigilant in the coming months and to act swiftly in response to a weakening market,if they wish to prevent oil prices from falling much below their unofficial USD 100 per barrel target.
Despite geopolitical tensions across the oil rich Middle East,amid also violence in Syria and recent Israel-Gaza unrest analysts said prices could drop in 2013 should Western economic recovery falter?
Mr Manouchehr Takin analyst of CGES said that"The important thing is the outlook...and most analysts expect OPEC to cut its production"next year because of weak demand growth."
