OPEC eyes cutting output by 1-1.5 mbpd - UAE agency

File photo of police officers standing guard on the rooftop of Vienna's OPEC headquarters. OPEC oil producers are leaning towards cutting production by 1-1.5 million barrels per day at their Oct. 24 meeting, the United Arab Emirates' news agency WAM said on Friday, citing an OPEC source.

DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC oil producers are leaning towards cutting production by 1-1.5 million barrels per day at their Oct. 24 meeting, the United Arab Emirates' news agency WAM said on Friday, citing an OPEC source.

"An OPEC source expressed the belief that ... a strong tendency among ministers at their meeting next Friday will be to carry out a sharp production cut of between 1 million and 1.5 million barrels per day from Nov. 1," WAM said in a report from Vienna, where the producer group has its headquarters.

"The OPEC source, who asked not to named, said the organisation finds itself compelled to resort to a sharp cut in an effort to stop a further decline in oil prices," the agency added.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Thursday it had brought forward an emergency meeting to discuss the impact of global recession on oil markets to Friday next week.

Oil jumped 4 percent to $73 a barrel on Friday, bouncing back from a 15-month low hit on Thursday, spurred by a broader rise across financial markets and expectations OPEC could cut output at an emergency meeting next week.

A looming global recession has heightened expectations of a steep drop in global demand for oil, prompting analysts to slash their oil price forecasts, a Reuters poll found on Friday.