OPEC to keep oil production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day

     The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its current oil-production ceiling at 30 million barrels a day Friday in a widely expected move that members described as an easy decision.unconventional gas But concerns about the growing threat from shale oil overshadowed the group's otherwise smooth meeting.
     OPEC ministers in an open session before their meeting in Vienna almost universally dismissed the notion that growing U.S. shale oil production threatened to reduce their oil revenues, but behind closed doors the countries suffering the worst effects of the American boom pressed the group to address the problem, said people present.
     They got little in return for their efforts; however, as OPEC's Secretary General, Abdalla Salem el-Badri, promised the group would launch a study of the effect of shale oil on its members,fracturing proppant but ultimately said it was up to the affected individual countries to seek out new markets on their own.
 
     The rift over the scale of the threat highlights how shale oil's uneven impact on its members is already setting them against one another.
     OPEC's decision not to change its 30 million barrel-a-day production ceiling--which has been consistently exceeded since it was agreed to in December 2011--comes as most ministers said they were satisfied with current prices, but rising oil output in North America threatens to erode demand for OPEC's crude.
     U.S. oil production has risen to a 21-year high, thanks to oil unearthed from shale rock formations beneath the plains of Texas and North Dakota by a new combination of technologies called  Hydraulic fracturing. OPEC's own analysts forecast that demand for its oil will fall by 400,000 barrels a day this year.
     Three African OPEC members that produce oil of similar grade to U.S. shale oil--Nigeria, Algeria and Angola--have suffered the worst effects. They collectively saw their shipments to the U.S. fall by 41% from 2011 to 2012, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
These countries rebuffed the threat of shale oil to reporters at the start of the OPEC meeting.