OPEC has agreed to increase its daily production quota to bring it in line with the amount of oil the group is pumping, Libya's oil minister said Wednesday as the cartel met to try to lower crude costs and ease the brakes on the global economy. The output ceiling _ now 27.5 million barrels a day _ will be increased to 28 million barrels as of July 1, Fathi bin Shatwan told Dow Jones Newswires. He said the group would consider raising the quota by another 500,000 barrels later this year if high prices didn't ease by then. OPEC members were meeting behind closed doors, with an official announcement expected by midafternoon. Crude prices have been hovering around US$55 per barrel, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was working to get them back below US$50, according to a report of The Associated Press.
