A senior official of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) said yesterday that his country has actually reduced its crude oil output according to the agreement reached on Oct. 24 by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the official Emirates News Agency reported.

The announcement was made by Mohammed bin Dhaen Al Hamili, the UAE Minister of Energy, according to the report.

OPEC members reached an agreement at an urgent meeting in Vienna on Oct. 24 to cut the cartel's oil output by 1.5 million barrels a day from this month in a bid to tackle the decline of oil prices.

Under the agreement, the UAE is committed to a reduction of 100,000 barrels a day.

Despite oil prices have fallen by more than 50 percent from a record high of 147.27 U.S. dollars a barrel in July, Hamili said that the Middle East oil and gas producers should continue investing in the energy industry.

"Fluctuations in oil prices don't have impact on long term oil projects," he said.

"The challenges facing world economy today should not prevent us from continuing investments in the petroleum industry but on the contrary it should serve as an impetus to prepare for the next cycle of growth," he added.