OPEC Chief: Quota Raise Just Symbolic

OPEC’s inability to tackle high oil prices was underlined on Tuesday when its biggest producer Saudi Arabia said real supplies would not rise despite a plan to increase official quota limits.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali-al Naimi said Riyadh had informed its customers of export allocations for July that mean keeping output steady at 9.5 million barrels a day.

Meeting on Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is considering lifting output quotas by 500,000 barrels a day, 2 percent, to 28 million bpd.

But even OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah of Kuwait admits the move is little more than a political gesture to consumer countries worried that oil prices are impeding world economic growth.
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