production ceiling

That would be 1.5 million barrels above the production ceiling set in November.

Analysts do not expect the group to raise its current production ceiling of 24.5 million barrels a day.

Once the ministers set a production ceiling, they will have to divide the total among member nations.

It also agreed to raise its overall production ceiling.

The production ceiling, now set at 28 million barrels a day and shared by all 11 members except Iraq, would theoretically remain unchanged.

The group has a self-imposed, and long-abandoned, production ceiling of 15.06 million barrels.

OPEC's current production ceiling is 16.6 million barrels a day.

It now urged immediate action to bring about a price increase by abandoning the production ceiling increases programmed for the rest of that year.

It also called for production ceilings.

OPEC nations agreed to keep the oil production ceiling steady in the spring.

Numerous meetings in recent years have ended in stalemates, or with production ceilings agreed to that were subsequently ignored.

In June, OPEC agreed to a production ceiling of 16.6 million barrels a day.

The mechanism was formally used only once, in October 2000, when OPEC raised production ceilings.

'Then Everybody Follows' The oil minister said the new production ceiling could not be as low as 16 or 17 million barrels.

In December, OPEC agreed to an increase in the group's production ceiling.

Crude oil rose amid speculation that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would leave its production ceiling unchanged.

Many oil analysts predict that OPEC will agree to set a production ceiling of 21 million or 21.5 million barrels a day.

November 29: For the first time in four years, OPEC agrees to an increase in its production ceiling.

Saudi Arabia, which always keeps some idle capacity to compensate for unexpected production shortages, has been pumping above its official production ceiling since May 2004.

As a group, OPEC continued to proclaim an overall production ceiling despite the fact that the limit is widely ignored by major producing nations.

In November, OPEC set an overall production ceiling of 22 million barrels a day for the first half of this year.

Russia's natural production ceiling is between eight million and nine million barrels a day, and it's in Russia's interests to increase to that ceiling."

But even if the production ceiling holds, the analysts say, any increase in gasoline prices will probably be smaller than the increase in crude oil prices.

The reason, he said, is that members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have stuck to its production ceilings and pricing guidelines.

The Nigerian oil minister, Jibril Aminu, called for a production ceiling of 21 million barrels a day.