UPDATE 2-Venezuela's oil chief says OPEC output adequate

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CIENFUEGOS, Cuba, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Venezuelan Energy and Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Thursday that OPEC countries are producing the necessary levels to maintain market equilibrium.

"OPEC member countries are producing the required level to maintain market balance," Ramirez told reporters in Cuba during a Caribbean energy meeting.

When asked whether OPEC should take action at its next meeting in Vienna on Feb. 1, Ramirez said: "We consider there is sufficient oil on the market."

Ramirez said there is a "good level" of inventories in major consuming countries. But he said high oil consumption will continue "tensing" oil prices.

At the next meeting OPEC members will have to carefully evaluate world economic factors, including the financial situation in the United States resulting from the subprime mortgage crisis.

Venezuela is one of the United States' top oil suppliers. Ramirez was in the Cuban port city of Cienfuegos, where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will inaugurate a refurbished Soviet-era refinery on Friday during a summit of Petrocaribe, his initiative to provide oil and products to Caribbean nations with preferential financing.

While OPEC did not raise production formally at its last meeting, there have been signs that supply is rising in December as a period of maintenance ends at oilfields in the United Arab Emirates.

The 10 OPEC members bound by agreements to set production policy are forecast to supply 27.7 million barrels per day, up 500,000 bpd from November, industry consultant Petrologistics said last week.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle, editing by Patricia Zengerle)