CARACAS Members of the OPEC oil producers cartel are in agreement to cut oil output if prices remain low, AFP quoted OPEC Secretary General Ali Rodriguez as saying here Thursday.

General consensus had been reached on the need for a production cut, Rodriguez, Venezuela's former energy minister, said, if oil prices remained below $22 a barrel over the next 10 working days.

The cartel would then cut output by 500,000 barrels a day, said Rodriguez, adding that nonmembers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries such as Angola, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Oman, and Russia would work with OPEC in reducing supply.

He said the cut in output would be in line with a mechanism for price adjustment agreed in March 2000 by OPEC.

Under the mechanism, an increase in output of 500,000 barrels a day is triggered if crude prices exceed $28 a barrel for 20 working days, and a cut of an equivalent volume kicks in if prices drop below $22 a barrel for 10 consecutive days.

"In general, members favor a one-time output cut," he told AFP here.

"Our studies show there is a significant increase in inventories and a significant fall in prices, including below the price band" agreed for triggering output cuts, said Rodriguez.

However, oil prices were holding up in New York, where benchmark light sweet crude for February delivery closed up 14 cents Thursday at $28.14, after a 79-cent increase in the previous session.

The price was driven up after release of figures earlier Thursday showing a drop in U.S. crude and gasoline reserves. The Department of Energy figures contradicted American Petroleum Institute estimates of an increase in reserves, released the previous day.

U.S. crude stocks had in fact dropped 1.8 million barrels over the week ending December 29 to 288.7 million barrels, according to the Energy Department.

Gasoline reserves had dropped sharply by 2.6 million barrels to 193.8 million barrels.

Oil prices were also boosted by repeated calls from OPEC members for a production cut in light of falling price over the past month.

Rodriguez has estimated surplus production at some 1.4 million barrels a day in November and December.