OPEC has agreed to make available 2 million extra barrels of oil a day in an effort to reassure markets edgy over supplies for the winter and storms threatening to cause more damage to refineries along the US Gulf Coast.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries said it would offer the extra oil for three months starting next month, but that its output ceiling would remain unchanged at 28 million barrels a day in a bid to ease fears of insufficient supply and high prices ahead of the winter heating season.
"We don't prefer to increase the ceiling at the moment," said Qatar's oil minister, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah. "There's now oil available for three months and if the world needs oil, it's available."
The offer of the extra crude came as Tropical Storm Rita strengthened into a hurricane, threatening to inflict fresh damage on oil production facilities on the Gulf of Mexico coastline.
Oil ministers decided against raising the output quota by another 500,000 barrels a day. But both options were seen as largely symbolic: The cartel already is pumping about 28.5 million barrels a day, and making extra crude available will not change the fact that the world's refineries can't keep up with demand.
OPEC's moves were overshadowed by Rita, which posed a fresh threat just weeks after Hurricane Katrina forced some US refineries to shut down or scale back operations.
Oil prices fell today after rising a day earlier by more than $4 a barrel - the biggest one-day price jump ever. Light, sweet crude for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.05 to $66.34 a barrel by afternoon in Europe.
The 2 million barrels would come from the spare capacity of OPEC members, although Saudi Arabia is the only country able to provide significant extra crude. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also could contribute.
The European Union had asked OPEC to provide the extra barrels.
"It's just a small step ... I don't think it's going to be enough to bring the oil price down," Rupert Krietemeyer, spokesman for EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, said in Brussels, Belgium.
But Claude Mandil, head of the International Energy Agency, questioned OPEC's ability to live up to its offer of an extra 2 million barrels a day.
"OPEC will be able to make more crude available, but it would be less than 2 million, somewhere between 1 and 1.5 million barrels per day," he said.