Oil prices have jumped to approach $54 on concerns about supply from OPEC. The cartel that accounts for 40% of the global oil output has signalled that quotas are likely to remain steady in the second quarter.

“The market is well-supplied and global crude oil stocks have continued to build, now standing above their five-year average,’’ OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah said today in an e-mail. OPEC is already pumping at near-maximum capacity as the cartel produces almost 29.5 million barrels and keeps a surplus of 2 million barrels a day to tap if it wishes to boost supply.

Iran along with Qatar and Venezuela also take a stand against raising OPEC production.

The International Energy Agency projects global oil consumption to total 84 million barrels a day in 2005, a 1.8 percent increase from 2004. Slowdown in supply growth can leave the market strained to meet growing demand from expanding Chinese and US economies.

The next OPEC meeting is to take place on March 16, in Isfahan, Iran. So far analysts have expected the cartel to keep its quotas unchanged or to boost production.

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Sunday that oil prices were "way, way too high," but that the U.S. economy was strong enough to ward off the negative impact on growth.