OPEC Having Second Thoughts?

The OPEC oil cartel could add an extra two million barrels per day to the market "if necessary," OPEC President Ali Rodriguez said Wednesday.

Rodriguez, who is also Venezuela's Mines and Energy Minister, said some OPEC countries were producing at or near capacity, but others "like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have enough capacity to respond to more (oil) demand."

"If necessary, two million barrels could be added to the market," he told a news conference.

He gave no details.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed on Sunday in Vienna to increase output by 3 percent from Oct. 1 to try to calm volatile energy markets that have soared this month to 10-year highs.

But Sunday's decision by the 11-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to boost production may be too little, too late to put a dent in oil prices that have soared all summer in the United States and abroad, reports CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth.

OPEC said it would lift production to 26.2 million barrels a day for 10 members, excluding sanctions-bound Iraq.

The oil conglomerate's output increase, the third this year, comes amid an international outcry over petrol prices and concerns that high energy costs could trigger inflation and dent world economic growth.

Further protests have broken out in Ireland and France over fuel taxes. For more than a week truckers in England, France and other European countries have blocked refineries, inspiring panic buying of gasoline and clogging roads.

Analysts said the OPEC deal - agreed to informally on Sunday - may be enough to slow the rise in prices, but it won't mean a big rollback from 10-year-highs.

An early drop of less than $2 a barrel on U.S. markets could add up to a savings of almost five cents a gallon at the pump, but a price drop like tht is not certain and it won't be soon.

OPEC also announced dismay in its report that consumer countries did not recognize the role of high taxation in high oil prices.

October contracts of North Sea Brent crude were down 45 cents at $32.33 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange in London. Contracts of light, sweet crude were down 18 cents at $33.45 before the opening of trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after slipping as much as 93 cents earlier in the day.

"I think it's a normal reaction," said Kuwaiti oil minister Sheik Saud Nasser al-Sabah.

The new quota, which will be slightly higher than what many analysts had predicted, will start Oct. 1. OPEC members agreed to meet again Nov. 12 to reassess market conditions.

However, analysts warned that the bulk of the increase, which was roughly in line with what many had predicted, will serve only to legitimize the 700,000 barrels that OPEC members are already estimated to be producing each day above their current quotas. As a result, analysts expect the impact on prices will be meager particularly for Americans who depend on heating oil to warm their homes.

High fuel costs have sparked concern and even outrage in several consuming nations. French truckers and taxi drivers last week blocked roads to protest gasoline prices, while farmers in Britain mounted similar, if smaller efforts to disrupt traffic. Americans living in areas where there is heavy snowfall worry that low fuel inventories will lead to soaring prices to heat their homes this winter.

"Prices for products, for heating oil and gasoline, are likely to stay quite high despite the increase in production," Petroleum Industry Research Foundation chairman John Lichtblau told CBS Radio News. "It will slow the increase in heating oil prices, but it could bring gasoline prices down somewhat" — but not a lot, he adds.

On a diplomatic level, European finance ministers expressed concern that surging prices could crimp world economic growth, and they discussed taking the exceptional step of sending an envoy to the OPEC meeting in Vienna to ask for an increase in output.

Finance ministers from 21 Pacific Rim countries, meanwhile, had warned that rising oil prices could damage their economies. Officials attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Brunei issued a statement Sunday urging OPEC members to stabilize oil prices.

"Clearly, there's not enough oil...contrary to what OPEC claims," said Roger Diwan, a managing director of The Petroleum Finance Company, a Washington-based consulting firm.

"Only Saudi Arabia has substantial excess use and capacity, so this 800,000 increase, if it takes place, would have to come largely from Saudi Arabia," said Lichtblau.

Earlier, as they gathered for their meeting in Vienna, several OPEC ministers said they would agree to boost production as part of an earlier arrangement aimed at stabilizing prices betwen $22 and $28 a barrel.

OPEC members agreed in June to pump an additional 500,000 barrels a day if the average price for several types of OPEC crude exceeded $28 for 20 consecutive business days.

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