OPEC Nearly Agrees on Plan to Cut Production : Oil: Saudi Arabia balks at pumping less than 8 million barrels a day. The cartel seeks to bolster spring prices.

OPEC got close to a deal Friday that would cut oil output for the spring, but Saudi Arabia backed out late in the afternoon, according to sources at the cartel’s contentious meeting.

The sources, who spoke on condition they not be named, said Saudi Oil Minister Hisham Nazir told other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that Saudi Arabia had a series of proposals for slashing oil output.

The cartel is seeking to cut production in the second quarter, in a bid to prop up prices when worldwide demand for oil falls for seasonal reasons.

One Saudi proposal called for an output ceiling of 22.5 million barrels a day, the amount supported by most members of OPEC. As part of the plan, Saudi Arabia would pump 7.9 million barrels a day, said sources.

OPEC officials believed that they were near an accord when Nazir suddenly said that level was unacceptable, the sources said. Nazir then said he could not slice Saudi output below 8 million barrels a day.

Later, Nazir told reporters that Saudi Arabia was willing to slash its oil output by 500,000 barrels, but he said there was still no agreement among the 13-nation cartel on a new output ceiling in the coming months. Persian Gulf sources estimate that the kingdom’s recent production has been as high as 8.6 million barrels a day. “We are still discussing all the various options,” Nazir said.

The abundance of OPEC oil on the market has been been blamed in part for the recent slide in oil prices. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest crude exporter and OPEC’s most powerful member.

Nazir denied earlier reports that the ministers had settled on a new production ceiling of 22.5 million barrels a day, which would amount to a cut of more than 1.5 million barrels a day.

Earlier in the day, Iranian Oil Minister Gholamreza Aghazadeh had said the nations were in accord on a new ceiling of 22.5 million barrels a day. He later softened his remarks by predicting that such a deal would be made.

The ministers’ discussions stalled over Saudi Arabia’s demand to retain its huge share of the group’s production. The Saudis pumped about one-fourth of OPEC’s oil when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, 1990, but it has since increased its output and now produces more than one-third of the total.

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Hamoud Rogba said the ministers’ discussions centered on a new output ceiling of 22.5 million to 22.7 million barrels a day.

The cartel is now pumping about 24.2 million barrels a day, well over its winter limit of 23.65 million barrels.

The average price of a basket of crudes monitored by the cartel has fallen to less than $17 a barrel, far below its $21 target.

OPEC nations are: Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.