LONDON, Dec 11: OPEC’s quota busters so far have shown little sign of paying heed to the stiff warnings handed out at the oil producer group's recent talks in Vienna, industry monitors said yesterday.

OPEC wellhead crude pr^ duction in November was estimated at 25.27 million bar rels per day. down 230.000 BPD from October's 25.5 million. a Reuter survey found

But while at first glance OPEC output discipline appeared tighter than in recent months, the industry monitors said November's lower supplies were attributed almost entirely to reduced volumes from largest Producer Saudi Arabia one of the few members to have adhered strictly to quota this year

There was a lot of huffing and puffing about quota compliance in Vienna but we ll have to wait for Decern ber to see whether there s any real evidence of better discipline from overproduc era." said an industry mom

tor.

OPEC at its year-end Conference late last month tn the Australian capital decided to maintain a freeze on output allocations at a combined 24 52 million BPD for the fir^t half of pext year. Quota-'btfsters; in particular Venezuela, were given a severe dressing down and told to trim excesses.

OPEC over the last three months has averaged 25.5 million BPD, close to a million barrels over its official ceiling. And with oil prices this week sailing to sixmonth highs. OPEC's overproducers have little incentive to contemplate painful supply reduction# aimed at propping up prices.

Benchmark North Sea Brent blend stands at 17.50 US dollars a barrel, still well short of OPEC’s 21 dollars target but 2 US dollar up from mid-October lows Prices now are back to levels not seen since Just before OPEC's mid-June conference.