Oil prices eased marginally today after OPEC agreed to lift output but dealers said the weekend pact was too little, too late to bolster US fuel stocks anytime soon.
Oil from Middle East suppliers takes four to six weeks to reach US shores; Venezuelan crude, which accounts for 13 per cent of US imports, arrives in about five days.
OPEC increased production limits by 1.5 million barrels per day, 7 per cent, to compensate for six weeks of losses in strike-bound Venezuelan supplies.
US light crude was off 34 cents to $31.20 a barrel and London Brent in early trade fell 37 cents to $29.30. The increase was divided pro-rata among members, meaning Venezuela was also granted its share of the higher output limit despite the 43-day-old strike that has slashed oil exports to roughly one-fifth, or 500,000 bpd.
Many others in OPEC have little, or no, spare capacity to bump up production, leaving Saudi Arabia to provide the lion's share.
OPEC's agreement brings the cartel's official production ceiling for its 10 members bound by quotas to 24.5 million bpd. Iraq sells oil under the United Nations' oil-for-food programme and is excluded from OPEC's quota system.
