Ministers and delegates of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries conference (OPEC) gather on Wednesday at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna.

OPEC oil ministers meeting in Vienna have agreed to raise their production quotas by 708,000 barrels per day, about a 3 percent increase. That modest increase will be some 300,000 barrels per day (bdp) less than reportedly sought by the United States. And few observers believe it will significantly bring down the soaring price of global oil, or bring quick relief to American motorists facing record highs for gasoline prices. Experts note, for instance, it can take at least 45 days for oil at the new prices to be delivered to refineries, and even longer for it to reach U.S. gas pumps. The agreement is scheduled to go into force on July 1. Furthermore, experts and officials say the quota increase could add less new oil to the world market than expected. OPEC Secretary-General Rilwanu Lukman, in an interview with ABCNEWS.com, said the 708,000 barrels a day increase could add as little as 200,000 additional barrels of OPEC crude to the world market, because many of OPEC’s 11 members are already pumping roughly 400,000 to 500,000 barrels a day in excess of the quota. Some experts, however, say quota-breaking countries will continue cheating after the increase, raising new OPEC production well above 200,000 bpd. Lukman, who is Nigeria’s oil minister, also said he expects that non-OPEC countries working in co-operation with OPEC will increase production at the same time by 200,000 to 300,000 bpd. OPEC, which produces 35 percent of the world’s oil, has not yet received assurances from those countries, Lukman said. But he added, “Now that we’ve acted, we expect some of our friends like Mexico and Norway to follow through and put extra oil onto the market.”