London (Platts)--22Dec2009/711 am EST/1211 GMT

Crude futures were trading in a tight range in the European morning Tuesday as the OPEC reached a widely-anticipated agreement to leave current crude production limits unchanged for the time being.

"It is a rollover," Algerian oil minister Chakib Khelil said as he left the meeting in the Angolan capital.

"We are very happy" with the decision, Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi said.

OPEC currently has a combined crude production target of 24.845 million b/d, which covers 11 of the group's 12 members, excluding Iraq.

At 11:08 GMT the February ICE Brent contract traded at $72.74/barrel, a 25 cent overnight fall. The new front-month WTI contract meanwhile traded at $73.41/b, a 31 cents fall. The WTI-Brent arbitrage spread was trading at $0.67/b. In the currency markets, the ICE dollar index was marginally lower at 78.015, however at these levels the index was trading close to a two-and-a-half month high.

"In terms of headline news, the market will be awaiting news from Angola," a crude trader said. "On the ICE Brent contract we're coming into some important technical numbers, in particular the five and eight day moving averages," the trader said. "With the market being ultra quiet we may see more volatility," he added.

--George Johnson, george_johnson@platts.com