MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Oil: OPEC Agrees to Increase Production Quota.

OPEC has agreed to increase official oil production by a million barrels a day, equivalent to 4%, up to 27 million barrels, in the hope off bringing prices down to under U$40.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is concerned by the impact of high costs on word economic growth and is hoping to reduce prices which are currently over U$44 a barrel.

The agreement increases official production limits by 4% to 27 million barrels a day, which will only have a slight impact in current supplies as the group is currently producing close to 28 million barrels a day.

World leader in oil production Saudi Arabia has already agreed to maintain a high level of supplies until prices decrease. OPEC delegates said that to maintain official assignations below that of current production levels World allow OPEC better flexibility to reduce them quickly, without having to adjust quotas, if prices suddenly fall.

Prices increased earlier this week because of Hurricane Ivan, closing on Tuesday in New York at U$ 44.39 a barrel, a dollar higher than Monday. This is because half of the oil and gas used in the United States comes from the Gulf of Mexico, where oil production was suspended.

However, Wall Street operators say that it is a temporary increase and that in the long term the price will decrease. This will be discussed at the OPEC meeting today with the participation of the energy ministers of Kuwait, Arab Emirates and Qatar will propose increasing the daily quota by a million barrels.