OPEC to Defend $28 Price

GENEVA — The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, at the end of the sixth day of an emergency conference, announced today that it will defend its official price of $28 a barrel, although world rates have plunged in recent weeks to barely half that level.

Oil markets reacted sharply to the news with some prices jumping nearly a dollar a barrel. Conference chairman Arturo Hernandez Grisanti of Venezuela, who made the announcement, would not say how the wrangling oil producers would achieve their aim, adding only, “To this effect, OPEC has adopted a series of measures to be made public in due time.”