OPEC Think Over Raising Output

OPEC is likely to reconsider raising its output quota to cap surging oil prices that have reached a 13-year high.
Now the officials are studying this possibility. The cartel president Purnomo Yusgiantoro refused to give the answer on raising quotas by OPEC at a meeting in Beirut on June 3.
Purnomo said OPEC had recently pumped an extra 1.5 million barrels per day of crude to push the price down. Earlier it had decided to cut production from 24.5 million bpd to 23.5 million bpd from April 1.
World oil prices reached their highest level in 13 years on Tuesday, following violence in the Middle East and low fuel stocks in the U.S.
London's Brent crude soared 4.4 percent or US$1.52 to $36 a barrel on Tuesday after five Western workers were killed at a Saudi chemicals plant in Yanbu. The level was the highest since the U.S. invaded Kuwait in the Gulf War. London's Brent crude slipped 13 U.S. cents to $35.80 on Wednesday.
U.S. light crude, meanwhile, eased just 11 cents to $38.88 a barrel after closing at $38.98 the previous day.
Crude prices have stubbornly stayed above OPEC's price band target of $22-$28 per barrel since Dec. 5.