MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Opec considers second output increase.

The OPEC was yesterday considering a second output rise just a day after it raised its production quota, reflecting its anxiety about meeting oil demand later in the year.

Oil prices hit another record nominal high on Thursday.

In New York, the US benchmark crude price, West Texas Intermediate, hit a peak of $57.50 a barrel, up $1.04, surpassing most forecasts made at the start of the year.

One delegate to the Opec meeting in Isfahan expressed concern about the mood in the cartel. "Normally we meet this time of year to look at the second quarter, but now we are already talking about the fourth quarter," the delegate said. "It is a very strange time. I have not seen it like this before."

Thursday's price rise came after Opec's decision this week to raise its production ceiling immediately by 500,000 barrels a day to a record 27.5m b/d.

Opec had wanted to calm prices, but its move was seen by traders as a sign of the cartel's concern about meeting demand next winter. "If prices continue as they are now, then starting from next week we will start our discussions," Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, energy minister of Kuwait and Opec president, said on Thursday.

Iran, however, was reluctant to consider another immediate quota rise. "We have to wait until at least mid-May, before we know what the demand is going to be like going into the summer," said Hossein Kazempour, Iran's representative to Opec.

Opec did little to calm fears about the second half of the year when it warned on Thursday that it expected global demand to reach almost 86m b/d in the fourth quarter a figure that is about 3.5m b/d above its estimate for the second quarter.