The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed Wednesday to increase production quotas by 500,000 million barrels a day with immediate effect, OPEC President Ahmed Fahed al-Sabah told reporters. However the increase failed to impress world oil markets, where record intraday highs were posted in New York and London. NYMEX light crude for April delivery was trading at 56 dollars per barrel by mid-afternoon, after rising above 56.30 dollars. The record close was 55.67 dollars per barrel, last October. Although news of lower than anticipated petrol reserves helped power the New York contract higher, the Brent crude benchmark in London was quoted at 54.85 dollars Wednesday evening, up more than 2 per cent from Tuesday's close. A half-million barrel-per-day increase would boost the official quota to 27.5 million barrels. The OPEC president was given authorization to increase the official rate by another 500,000 before the next OPEC conference on June 7, should conditions warrant. --MORE 2338 Local Time 2038 GMT
