Vienna, Nov 28 (IANS/WAM): The basket of 12 crude oils of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) closed at $70.80 a barrel Thursday, compared to $73.70 Wednesday, the OPEC Secretariat said.

The new OPEC reference basket comprises Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Iran Heavy (Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (United Arab Emirates) and Merey (Venezuela). A barrel equals 159 litres.

On Thursday, the 166th Meeting of the Conference of the OPEC in Vienna, Austria, decided to maintain OPEC's collective output target at 30 million barrels a day, as was agreed in December 2011.

"As always, in taking this decision, member countries confirmed their readiness to respond to developments which could have an adverse impact on the maintenance of an orderly and balanced oil market," OPEC said.