Ecuador's Minister of Non-Renewable Natural Resources Germanico Pinto, the new chairman of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said on Tuesday that he believed the reasonable price for crude oil should be US$80.

Germanico Pinto takes over the rotating OPEC chairmanship from Angola's Oil Minister Botelho de Vasconcelos at the 155th ministerial meeting of the oil cartel in Luanda.

Speaking to reporters at the sideline of the OPEC meeting, Germanico Pinto said it would be reasonable if crude oil prices sail into territories around US$80 per barrel as it assured income for the oil producing countries.

Sources close to the OPEC meeting said the ministers have decided to keep the amount of 24.84 million barrels per day as the cartel's production quota, the same level it set at its last meeting in Vienna, Austria, and a formal statement is expected to be made at the end of the Luanda meeting.

Oil has gained some 60 percent this year as against the same period of last year, and the OPEC decision to keep its quota unchanged is expected to be conducive to keeping the prices of crude oil at above US$70 per barrel, which is satisfactory both to consumers and producers, analysts said.

The Luanda meeting was held at a critical time as OPEC member countries and the rest of the world began to see clear signs of a recovery in the world economy after the financial crisis hit most of the countries, Angola's prime Minister Paulo Kossoma said.

However, Angola and fellow OPEC countries believes the demand for crude oil and the recovery in the world recovery still weak, and the current output level should be maintained to ensure price stability and strike a balance between oil supply and demand to stabilize the oil markets and the world economy.

Currently OPEC groups Angola, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Venezuela, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar.

(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2009)