The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided Tuesday in Angola to maintain it output of crude at current levels, Angola's state news agency Angop reported.

Oil and energy ministers from OPEC's 12 member countries met for the first time in Angola, which joined the cartel in 2007, DPA reported.

"The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which began its 155 ministerial conference Tuesday in Luanda, decided to maintain its quota of oil production at 24.84 million barrels per day (bpd)," Angop reported.

The meeting was opened by Angolan Prime Minister António Paulo Kassoma and OPEC president Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos, Angola's oil minister.

Angola then handed the rotating OPEC presidency to Ecuador.

The decision by OPEC to keep output constant came as little surprise.

OPEC's secretary-general Abdalla Salem El-Badri had described the current oil price, hovering between 70 and 80 dollars per barrel, as "very comfortable," before the meeting and signalled that output would remain unchanged.

Ecuador's Minister for Natural Resources Germanico Pinto told the meeting a price of 80 dollars a barrel would allow OPEC members to invest in public services and in petrochemical infrastructure

A year ago, OPEC slashed output by 4.2 million bpd as prices plummeted below 40 dollars a barrel on the back of the global recession.

Angola shot past Nigeria this year to become the continent's biggest oil producer, pumping 1.9 million barrels of crude a day in October.

OPEC members supply 34 per cent of the world's crude oil.